


Another One

by Emmuzka



Series: Making of [2]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Drama, Dystopia, Kid Fic, M/M, Mpreg, Phil Kessel hates everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-21 13:53:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7389580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmuzka/pseuds/Emmuzka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil is having a second child, which should be impossible. Only this time it’s a girl, also impossible.</p><p>Another kid shouldn’t be the end of the world, except for Phil and Bozie, it almost is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another One

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this ages ago, which explains the outdated pairing, but here! Have some vintage Phil/Bozie! 
> 
> The story is set after my fic _Making of_ , which you don't have read to enjoy this, but I recommend reading it first to get a better understanding on this world's male pregnancy context.
> 
>  **Warnings** for a miscarriage scare and discussion about postpartum depression. This fic also handles the issue of institutionalized rape on a conceptual level, i.e. the government pressuring people to carry children they don't want to carry.

Bozie woke up from a deep sleep when a hand poked him and then pawned his face and neck. “Bozie wake up!” 

“Wha?” It had to be in the middle of the night, and Adam had been sleeping through the night for months, now. It was Phil trying to rouse him, and he sounded panicked, almost. Bozie was still too groggy to try to decipher Phil’s mood. “What?” 

“Bozie, call an ambulance, I think I’m bleeding.”

Bozie had never woken up so quickly. “What?!”

Bozie fumbled for the bedside lamp and finally managed to light up their bedroom. What he saw made him to let out a wordless noise. Phil was laying on his side of the bed, looking scared and almost as white as the sheets. His sleep pans were dark, showing nothing, but underneath him the sheet was red. It was like Phil was lying on a puddle of blood. 

Phil looked down at himself, and then at Bozie, breathing heavy and his eyes wide. It looked like he wouldn’t dare to move and had to work on it to keep his breathing as calm and steady as he could. _What the fuck was this?_

Bozie grabbed his phone to call 911. It took his both hands to hold the phone in his shaking hands while he dutifully answered the dispatcher’s questions and watched as Phil lowered his head back to the mattress, like he’d be too tired to hold himself in his raised position. His brow was sweaty and Bozie watched as Phil gave up following Bozie with his eyes, but instead just settled to stare right in front of him, probably not even listening in the call anymore.

“Sir! Listen to me!” The voice on the other end demanded his attention.

“Sorry, sorry!” It was hard to concentrate. How much could a man bleed? Was Phil going to die?

The dispatcher told him to feel Phil’s pulse and breathing and try to get him to talk. Bozie tried not to panic, obediently going through the motions dictated to him. Phil’s skin felt clammy and his breathing was shallow, but he answered to Bozie’s questions, even if he sounded vacant. _It would be fine,_ Bozie assured himself. 

When the lights of the ambulance finally hit the window, Bozie had to abandon Phil to open the front door. What if this would be the last time he’d touch Phil, feeling his pulse, Bozie caught himself thinking, but then buried the thought quickly. 

After seeing the paramedics in and leading them to the bedroom, Bozie was left standing in the hallway. He’d been not-so-gently pushed out of the room. It would be better if he’d stay out and keep an eye on Adam’s door, anyway.

Now he let himself panic, when the authorities were here and he was back again a regular citizen who wasn’t expected to do much. His hands trembled so much that now he dropped his phone on the floor. 

Bozie tried to make sense of it. Phil was inside with the paramedics and he was surrounded by blood, he’d been bleeding that much. Bozie knew that Phil might have a bit unusual physiology, and that came with a bit of spotting at times. They didn’t talk about it, but there definitely was a package of sanitary pads in the bottom drawer in their main bathroom. Still, no man could bleed that much without it being really fucking bad. 

Bozie had to concentrate on picking his phone up. He feared that if he’d have to go down on his knees to retrieve it, he might not be able to get up again. 

Stella came to him, quietly licking Bozie’s fingers. The dog was obviously anxious and seeking assurance.

Okay. He took a deep breath and patted Stella’s head. _Time to be the adult again._ Adam was asleep in his room. Or at least Bozie hoped that he’d still be sleeping. He took a guard at Adam’s door. It wouldn’t do for the little boy to wake up and accidentally witness the paramedics moving his father to the ambulance. 

So there Bozie stayed, guarding his kid’s door and trying to figure out who he could wake up and get here to watch over Adam as quickly as possible so he wouldn’t have wake the boy up and take him with him to the hospital. All while two doors down, Phil was being prepared to be moved on a gurney, as quickly as it was possible. 

It was the worst night of his life. So far.

***

It was already well into a morning when Bozie was finally updated the first time on Phil. Bozie had called to Phil’s mom and dad, but it would take more than a half a day for them to arrive.

For a second Bozie feared that he wouldn’t be recognized as a close relative since he and Phil weren’t married, but apparently people tended to forget to check that when you arrived on the same ambulance.

Bozie didn’t pretend to truly understand what the problem had been, but either it had been an ectopic pregnancy ending, with a regular pregnancy that continued, which couldn’t be right because males never produced more than one egg cell at a time, or it had been a blood clot. A blood clot and a pregnancy, which again should be impossible because men never carried another child. Never. 

Bozie just nodded at the doctor. Everything felt bleak. It wouldn’t do to say straight on her face that she sounded crazy and Bozie must have understood wrong. Just, nod, nod, nod. Whatever to make the doctor to continue, to say that Phil would be okay for now. 

***

Hours later, Bozie felt almost woozy when he finally heard what he wanted. Kinda. Whatever had been the reason for the bleeding, after emergency surgery and several transfusions, Phil was supposedly now out of the woods. And hey, still pregnant, for about eight weeks already.

Bozie thanked the doctor and forgot to ask her anything, even about when he’d be allowed to go see Phil. Because what the ever-loving-fuck, pregnant? _Again?_

Bozie was again left to sit for two hours on the plastic chair in the hospital hallway. He took his phone out countless times but eventually didn’t dare to call to anyone. Not before he’d seen Phil. 

Now that he knew that Phil wasn’t _dying_ he even almost regretted calling Phil’s parents in the night. Bozie fucking around with the phone however had eaten the phone’s already low battery, and Bozie was almost relieved when it eventually died on him, making the decision easier. 

Finally it was late enough in the morning for somebody to decide that the visiting hours in the private rooms had started and he was hustled in Phil’s room.

Phil looked weak laying in his hospital bed with the sides still up, surrounded with tubes and monitors. But he was out of the ICU and even awake, so at the moment Phil was doing as good as he could.

Bozie stopped right on Phil’s bedside, not daring to touch him. “Phil…”

“Where’s Adam?” Phil sounded tired but not groggy.

“He’s with Mrs. Bloom.” Their neighbor had understood the emergency immediately and she’d been happy to help, coming to their door before the ambulance had to leave. She was an absolute darling, but Mrs. Bloom was old and Bozie tried not to burden her too much, so this would be only a quick fix solution. But now at least there would be someone familiar to Adam in the house when he’d wake up. 

Bozie checked the time. Or rather when Adam had woken up. He’d definitely be up already, wondering where his dads had gone during the night. 

“You called him?” 

“I’ll call him next. My phone died, so.” 

Phil seemed to be somewhat satisfied with the answer and he settled to his pillow. Bozie waited him to continue but nothing else was forthcoming. Trust Phil to not talk about things he didn’t care to talk about. 

“Phil. They told you about…?”

Phil sighed. “Yes.” Then, after a pause, “And no, I just didn’t know. And don’t ask me how I didn’t notice, because I just didn’t, okay?” 

Also trust Phil to get defensive first and think only second. “I wasn’t asking that. Of course you didn’t notice. I am asking how the team doctors hadn’t known. I thought they kept testing you guys like, every second week.”

“I guess they just dropped it in my case at some point. I know they tested me the same as the other guys, but they must have stopped checking the actual results.”

Protecting pregnant men from any harm was a thing in the States. Letting pregnant men do anything strenuous or dangerous was a big no-no, let alone letting one on the ice with other men in knife-sharp skates on. “Someone is going to get yelled at for this.”

“Rather like someone is going to get fired for this.”

Bozie sat down and took Phil’s hand in his, lacing their fingers together. He wanted to kiss the fingers, but didn’t dare to risk Phil’s reasonably good, but if Bozie remembered right, easily fluctuating mood, with any too touchy-feely gestures. 

“So. How long till they’ll let you out?”

***

Bozie couldn’t stay for long, as he had to relieve Mrs. Bloom, make sure the kid and the dog were fed properly, and make sure their apartment would be ready for Phil’s parents in the case they would change their minds and take on Bozie’s offer instead of staying in a hotel. 

It was a good thing that Bozie hadn’t driven to the hospital by himself in the night, as he still felt like he wasn’t fit to drive. So he sat in the back of a taxi and tried to gather his thoughts.

Bozie didn’t know what to think. Just, what the fuck? Another kid, how was that even possible? 

Bozie had to skip the first thought, the _this-should-not-be-medically-possible_ -part, because otherwise he wouldn’t have gone far. Sometimes, very seldom, a man would get spontaneously pregnant with his own genetic twin, have the child, and that was it. These single genetic parent kids were almost universally perceived as signs of good luck and prosperity, so both the parent and the kid went to their merry way and that was supposed to be it, happily ever after. 

But this time that was not the case, and Bozie didn’t have a fucking clue why, so he had to skip that and continue. Kids were great, Bozie loved kids. The fans loved kids. Freaking America loved kids. But before a kid there would be a pregnancy and Bozie knew well that Phil would hate another pregnancy. The attention, the way it fucked up his body and mind, being a freak for having another child when men simply _didn’t do that,_ all of it. 

If Phil was now having medical problems too, maybe it would have been better if the pregnancy would have ended along with them, before they even had known about it. But now? Now that Bozie knew about it, he couldn’t stop wanting. Except if it was life-threatening to Phil, then it had to go, no matter what.

It was just that what had happened, had been life-threatening. Could they have noticed it sooner, and do something to prevent this happening? Could _Bozie_ have noticed it for Phil, in any circumstances? Maybe he could have. Maybe he should have.

When Phil had been traded to the Penguins, Bozie had called it quits. The Leafs had let him go. It was a clean cut; the Leafs ate the cap hit and there were no demands of compensation from either side. 

It had been a really fucking big deal at the time, the trade. The Maple Leafs had been rebuilding, and trading their world class players like Phil to high pics and prospects had been a good strategy. Of course it had come with a media speculation on if the Leafs didn’t genuinely welcome single parents and if the trade had been a package deal to get Bozie gone, too. 

But off they had went, Phil to play and Bozie to play full time house husband. Or a million dollar nanny, as some assholes said on twitter. They had decided to make the best of it. Penguins was definitely a welcoming team for single parent players, with Sid and Geno running an example on how well could it go.

And the thing was, Bozie had actually liked it, being a full-time dad. Sure, he missed hockey, and sometimes when they fought, Bozie thought about the career he would still have if he’d stayed in Toronto instead. But still, he liked to be the dad who stayed home with Adam when Phil had to travel. He liked to be the one that took care of Adam, and he liked that they didn’t have to have a regular nanny anymore, just a half-a-day kindergarten for Adam and a full cleaning service for keeping the house chaos in check. 

Of course it also helped that Bozie was crazily into Adam. He loved the kid, and Adam loved him back. Adam would have a pressure to succeed when he’d grow, and it was already showing in the way people treated him. Bozie loved to be one of those few people who didn’t place any expectations for the kid based on his genetic similarity to his father. 

At least Adam was pretty good at skating. Children that age usually concentrated on keeping upright on skates. Bozie often wondered what kind of player Adam would become, with them as a family. No demanding hockey mom or a brilliant little sister to beat, but instead two dads cheering him on no matter what. If Adam would ever pursue hockey for more than just a hobby, that was. Bozie would never pressure the kid to do something he wouldn’t have a real interest in.

Honestly, Bozie was never bored in his hockey WAG life. Many retired player felt lost and uncomfortable when their careers ended, not really having any other interests or job opportunities to fall into, but being a dad for Adam was a job enough. And he had Phil to get cozy with every night. 

Bozie even had kind of a new career, being YouTube famous. When they had first settled in Pittsburgh with baby Adam, Bozie had been asked to appear as a guest writer in a few hockey and lifestyle blogs and sites. One thing had led to another, and Bozie had ended up being a parenting blogger and a YouTuber of sorts. 

A daddy blogger, and especially a daddy for a single child, was still a novelty, and Bozie genuinely wanted to make videos on how much exercise was good for your kid, what stain nightmares pureed carrots could cause, and how did it felt the next day when your kid had kept you awake for the whole night.

Being a dad, that was Bozie’s thing. Phil had found it funny, and completely supported him, but hardly ever appeared on the videos. Bozie had a suspicion that a certain percent of his views were made by a bunch of Penguins fans that wanted to fawn over Adam and maybe see Phil when he made brief appearances once in a blue moon. At least Phil had nothing against Adam being in the videos and Bozie writing about him on his blog, as long as there was an actual reason for having the kid in the video, and as long as Bozie didn’t write anything too personal about Adam or Phil. Bozie’s daddy blogging was fun, it was interesting, and he got a validation from his still modest but enthusiastic and steadily growing audience. 

So. Bozie loved being a dad, was natural at it, loved his son and would gladly take care for another kid, too. On the other hand, Phil hated being pregnant. He had previously suffered physical and mental trauma from it, and as a consequence, it took an effort for him to be an involved father. Phil loved his son, but damn if he wanted to carry another. 

Also, this would be a huge thing, a male having another child. As Bozie knew it, it just didn’t happen. The whole world was craving for more children and the male pregnancies continued to fascinate people. But it wouldn’t be all roses and rainbows, either. Single parent kids were genetic twins to their fathers, and some people didn’t like that. Even more persons in the world with the same genetic makeup would surely spark some extreme opinions. Bozie didn’t want Phil and the kids _(Kids! Plural!)_ end up as the center of that discussion. 

But eventually, it wouldn’t be up to Bozie to decide what he, personally, wanted to do. When the taxi drove to their driveway, Bozie had decided that he’d support Phil in any way and in any case. And maybe it wouldn’t be up to Phil, either. Maybe the pregnancy would have to be terminated for medical reasons. Maybe it would have to be continued. They just didn’t know. 

Bozie would go in, deal with their son and their ruined bed, maybe make a video of something completely unrelated. Return to normal. But still, he continued to hope.

***

After four days of rest, accompanied with an extra day with a ton of tests, Phil got to come home. While still pregnant, and no immediate plans of not being pregnant, but they didn’t talk about it right then.

Bozie watched Phil pack and throw his now dead phone on his bag. 

“Did you check it at all?” Bozie had brought the phone the second day, along with the charger and his laptop, hoping that Phil would call to his GM, agent and siblings. Still, it wouldn’t have surprised him if Phil wouldn’t have used the phone once. They had decided not to Skype Adam, as Adam was used to his father to be gone for days at a time, and seeing Phil in a hospital bed could have made Adam more upset than not seeing him at all. They’d let the boy enjoy his grandparents at peace.

“Yes, I did. Wanna see?” Phil made a gesture to reach his phone but then remembered it had no life left. 

“What? You got a call from someone _special?_ ”

Phil threw him a sour look that told that Bozie had caught him thinking just that. 

“So who was it? You got a tweet from a Hall-of-famer? A serenade from the Mini-Geno?” Geno’s kid was admittedly adorable, and against all odds, really good at singing.

“Ha.”

“C’mon. Tell me.” Bozie bumped shoulders with Phil.

Phil tried to stay offended, but then Bozie got a slight smile. “Got a get well message from Mario.”

“Cool!” Bozie was suitably impressed. Okay, so it wasn’t totally out of the blue, considering. After two days of peace, someone had sold the nightly paramedic visit to the media so everyone knew Phil had gone to a hospital in some emergency situation, and Bozie was positive that Mario Lemieux was in the currently extremely small group of people who were in the know. 

Even Bozie’s parents were left out. Even when it was both Phil and Bozie facing this, in some way it still ended up as Phil’s decision alone. Phil hadn’t been happy with even his own parents knowing, and had managed to convince them to return to their own lives only after a few days. Bozie wasn’t sure if he should be worried about it, about Phil, or not. Bozie didn’t particularly care about Phil’s parents. They were good people, but sometimes they just _forgot_ that Bozie was in their son’s life permanently.

“Ready to go home?” Bozie snatched Phil’s bag. It was his boyfriend and baby daddy who had been in a hospital, so he would carry Phil’s bag if he wanted to. 

They started the ride home in companionable silence. Phil was obviously still tired.

“So did they say it was a lower body or an upper body injury?”

Bozie laughed. “Actually, lower body.”

Phil dozed off during the drive, which Bozie guessed was good because at home waited a little boy full of energy and missing his father. He only woke up when they arrived, but then he didn’t rose right away.

Bozie sat with him and took Phil’s hand, lacing their fingers. 

They sat there long time, too long for just people gathering their wits to face their kid, an over-exited dog and a curious nanny.

“What are we going to do?” The first time Phil had been pregnant, he’d ended mentally such a bad shape that Bozie hadn’t wanted to leave him alone in a fear he’d do something to himself. At the moment, no-one could promise that this time would go any better.

There were no legal means to abort the pregnancy, and any attempt to induce it accidentally-on-purpose could result for Phil to be taken to custody. With a lack of better options, it would be the best if Phil could just commit to this and learn to endure like he’d done with Adam. Except that it might be too much for Phil. Even going with the motions might be too much.

Bozie didn’t know how to answer. But they both knew that they were in this together, which really was a different situation from before. It could go worse, but it also could go much better.

“I’ll guess we start telling people at some point?” Bozie suggested. There really was no reason to wait now, outside their own reluctance to get it over with. It would even be better to tell the real reason for the dramatic hospital stay right away instead of letting people make their own conclusions.

“Not the public.” Not yet. 

“No. Just the usual.” Just Phil’s agent, his team, their families. The usual, like the last time.

They went in to greet Adam and relieve the nanny. Adam had noticed that something was off right the morning when he woke up to Mrs. Bloom sitting in the kitchen, both of his dads already gone. Later Bozie had just told him that his dad had been sick and had to stay in the hospital. Adam didn’t like doctors or hospitals, so there would be some extra needy kid waiting for them.

Watching Phil greeting Adam, scooting him up and planting some slobbery kisses on his kid’s cheeks to make him laugh, it dawned to Bozie. For Phil, this could be it. 

It was six days from Phil’s last game, a home game against the Oilers. Maybe that had been his last professional game. The pregnancy would take almost a year. Having a paternity leave and then getting back into shape could be another whole season, maybe half a season without any setbacks. And Phil was now over thirty. 

Bozie knew that no-one would be even pretending that Phil would be ever coming back, like people did out of courtesy when players fucked up their backs or got one too many concussions. Also, there was the happy family thing. Even when most of the single parents continued to have successful careers after having a kid, the ideal was still a kind-of partially stay-at-home dad who would be super devoted to his child. Bozie had an inkling that them having another kid, Bozie himself wouldn’t be enough to satisfy the public’s craving for a happy stay-at-home family. 

WNHL had just announced an extension team in Pittsburgh and after the news, there had been talks about offering Phil an assistant coach position if he’d want it. But that offer had been planned to become real only a few years from now, not the next year. But it was still a good possibility, a good maybe. Phil was a good player and great at creating goodwill around him, so it wouldn’t be a problem for him to get a hockey-related adequate job in the city. 

So maybe it would go okay. Phil had his name in the Stanley Cup. Adam would love a little brother and Bozie would love the newcomer like he would be his own flesh and blood. And Phil would love him too, Bozie knew, even if it might feel hard at the beginning. 

“Maybe we should get married.”

Phil laughed. “We are out, we have a kid and a house in both of our names. We have a great sex life, you get all the wag invitations, and my fans stalk your YouTube channel. I think that’s pretty married, hmm?”

“I mean, just in case.”

Phil just hmm’ed. “You ready to face the world?”

They went inside. Phil didn’t get back to it and Bozie let the subject drop.

***

The next day everything still felt kind of sore. Bozie wanted to talk about Phil having a baby, and Phil obviously didn’t. Bozie wanted to dig up the old baby stuff that he had saved and painstakingly packed to go with them to Pittsburgh, going as far as almost hiding the old blankets and booties to make sure that Phil wouldn’t throw them away. But he couldn’t do that because Phil wasn’t ready to see it yet, and he had to respect that. 

Phil had to go to the hospital again, for a follow-up and an interview with the Single Parent Health Services that were way more interested in Phil’s case than what Bozie thought necessary. Phil wanted to go alone and Bozie was okay with that as long as Phil still wouldn’t drive himself. Some of the guys had volunteered, or maybe Sid and Geno had made them volunteer. Either way, with the public interest up, it was better than a taxi or über. 

Waiting for Hagelin to arrive, Phil had the time to do what he’d actively avoided the whole previous night: Check just how much the interest was up. 

Bozie should have guessed it would go badly. “Puck Daddy links to your video. You told about this on YouTube? Did you leak the hospital trip, what the fuck?!”

“No! Of course not.” Bozie went to Phil, but he was already beyond appeasing. Bozie was left standing in a respectful distance from his pregnant boyfriend. 

“I just, a video was long overdue so I had to record something, and I let it slip that we had had a family emergency at that night. But I didn’t break it, they didn’t pick it up from me! Check the posting time, it’s way later than the first press!”

They were left there standing in a literal stand-off. Bozie wanted to go hug Phil, but didn’t dare in a fear of being rejected. Bozie felt like saying anything about hormonal mood swings now would probably result in him getting punched. 

Fortunately it didn’t take long for Hagelin’s car to appear in the driveway and Adam to yet again run from his room to plea that Phil would take him with him.

After assuring Adam that Phil would be gone only a few hours and that Adam would get super bored with Phil, Bozie only had a fleeting moment before Phil had to go. So he’d just have to blurt it out, whether Phil was ready to hear it or not. 

“We know what’s coming, we know to look out for the symptoms, and I’m here. You don’t have to be afraid that I would leave this family ever, okay? So you can do this.”

Phil was already walking backwards towards the front door, but he was clearly listening this time. Then he nodded to Bozie. “Okay. Okay.” Then he was gone, back to the hospital.

***

And for a few weeks, so it went. There were checkups after checkups, “just to make sure that everything is okay. Everyone and their dog seemed to be amazed by the second pregnancy. Phil’s parents and siblings were ecstatic, though Phil’s mom was already making sounds about raising the new kid better than the first one. (Because at age of four, Adam was apparently supposed to be already a wunderkid of hockey.) 

Their decision on not going public lasted only for days, because like the emergency visit to the hospital, the actual reason for it leaked soon. Then there was a press conference where Phil, backed by his team and the whole NHL organization, confirmed that yes, he was pregnant, _again_ , and would people please give him and his family some privacy from now on?

The hockey media and the part of the entertainment media that cared about these things, went nuts. The whole city went crazy, because babies for men were a blessing, and another baby was even more unique and special.

There was almost universally something very appealing in pregnant men. Maybe it came with the condition, like if it was a hormonal thing, Bozie thought. Or maybe it was some shared cultural delusion, but suddenly everyone was eager to see a glimpse of a certain athlete with a round face and a ginger beard. Bozie wouldn’t know the reason, but he was biased to guess because he already loved the said ginger bearded crouch. 

Even when the Pens PR was on it, Bozie kept googling and keeping an eye on things said online. It was part of his job, right. 

Although he’d have preferred if Phil would have opted out from Googling himself. “They still think that I’m faking it.”

“Who? And I don’t see why.” 

“Just the usual hecklers. Because supposedly I’m lazy and fat and…” Phil kept reading whatever article he had found. “And they think that I want to retire so that no-one can blame me for being a fat, lazy fuck? Fuck if I know, this doesn’t really make sense.”

“Maybe you should drop it. World is full of assholes.” 

“NHL’s head doctor was there on the podium in the press conference to say that he had personally seen me and that I was pregnant, what more they could want? A sonogram in front of a live audience?”

“hmm.” Phil’s guess had been hilariously, or frighteningly, accurate.

“Shit, really?” 

“You should really drop that shit, stay away from the net for a while.” _Think about your blood pressure,_ Bozie wanted to say, but didn’t.

The most amazed, however, was the medical world. That was the reason for Phil being called for additional tests over and over again. 

Phil and Bozie had decided that for his pregnancy check-ups, Phil wouldn’t just go with the male pregnancy health services that the university hospital offered, but in addition, they chose to go to a private practitioner. Phil chose Dr. Jin based on his unofficial online support group’s recommendation. The doctor’s unsympathetic attitude towards the Single Child Protective Services system was apparently highly sought after in some circles. Money got them choices that they otherwise might not have, that Bozie could admit. 

At least they now had someone to check the prescriptions Phil got from the university’s neo natal unit, Bozie thought when he watched the growing number of bottles and boxes next to their bathroom sink. Most of them were only vitamins, though. At least now.

Phil also got enrolled again to an official, government provided male pregnancy support group. Bozie didn’t know exactly what went wrong with it this time, but after three times, Phil just stopped going. 

It was an evening of a night of the support group, and despite Bozie’s several hints that now would be a good time to leave if Phil wanted to be there on time, nothing had happened. Phil had simply procrastinated until it was too late. 

Bozie picked some zero alcohol beers from the fridge for both of them. “You know they monitor you, now even more than the last time. So why would you not go?” It was important for Phil to seem as happy and balanced as possible. If they needed help from the Single Parent Health Services, it should be on their terms.

Phil was in a sour mood, but he also felt relieved. Bozie easily recognized the procrastinator’s it’s-too-late-now relief that came from passing the final decision point. “It’s a hostile environment.”

“Hostile? They don’t like you?” Usually Phil didn’t give a shit if someone liked him or not.

“It’s the guy running the group. I think he reports shit about me anyway, so I rather not be there if it doesn’t help any.”

Reporting shit, what that even meant? “Can’t you complain about him?” 

Phil’s group in Toronto had been pretentious and they had really worked hard on avoiding any serious issues, but this time Bozie would have wanted it to work out. As he saw it, Phil seeing other men in his situation was better than nothing.

“Complain? To where? It’s not like there would be a safe workplace environment policy there. The whole system is supposed to be for our support, or spying on us for the Single Parent Health Services, rather. I don’t think there is a system for them to review their own quality.”

Bozie took a sip of his beer, trying to not to let his frustration show. “So this guy, he did what? Spied on you?”

“They write reviews to the Services about us, that’s why we know better than to talk any actual problems. But I think that the reports are more in depth than we knew, and I know that the guy writes shit about me.”

Bozie patiently waited Phil to elaborate.

“It’s like, if I tell that Adam was happy to see me when I came back, he’ll write that Adam was distressed while I was gone. Or if I say that I had stomach pains but then it went away, he’ll write that I had stomach pains but decided to not act on it until they went away.” 

Bozie put his beer down. “Did you actually see what he wrote? And when you had stomach pains?”

Phil obviously didn’t want to continue with the conversation. “No, I didn’t see the report, but it’s the way he asks me to elaborate and re-words things back to me, like he is trying to put words in my mouth.”

“So the guy’s a dick. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“At least he isn’t touchy-feely.”

“Wait, what?” 

Phil looked like he just caught up what he’d said, and regretted it now.

“Who’s being touchy-feely?”

“No-one. Everyone. The doctors, mostly. The other guys in the fucking support group. The team, but they don’t notice that they’re doing it.”

“Okay. So the group, you just don’t go then?” Don’t get hostile, Bozie reminded himself. It wouldn’t do any good. 

“It’s not actually mandatory. Technically, they can’t make me go.”

 _But if they want, for any reason, to build a case against you, not going is also a thing against you, a rather big thing,_ Bozie wanted to say, but then didn’t. “Okay. But next time you have pains, tell me, okay? We are supposed to decide together if a thing is something or not.”

So Phil didn’t go and Bozie couldn’t make him. Bozie also didn’t have anyone with who he could talk about this. He considered talking to Dr. Jin, but then it felt too much like he’d be betraying Phil’s trust, so he let it go.

***

A few weeks later Phil asked Bozie if he wanted to come with him to his pre-natal appointment. 

Bozie felt exited right away. “Will there be a sonogram again?” Bozie hadn’t been there the first time, and had even learned about it only afterwards when Phil had dropped an envelope full of sonogram stills on his lap. He had swallowed the few choice words about _Phil obviously giving a damn about including him_ , scanned the best ones and mailed them to their moms. (Phil had apologized afterwards, though.)

“I don’t actually know.” Phil flattened his slightly over grown hair and pulled his shirt lower over his still non-existent baby belly. 

“Then what…?” Phil had never before asked Bozie to come, even when Bozie had hinted that he’d want to accompany him.

“Dr. Jin asked if it would be okay for him to talk to both of us today, so.”

“Okay.” Sometimes Bozie felt like strangling Phil. He knew that Phil had again went through testing in both at the university hospital and at Dr.Jin’s private clinic. But was the testing a good thing? A bad thing? With Phil not listening any nuances of what the doctors were explaining that they did, or caring to decipher them forward, things tended to get lost in translation sometimes.

By the time of their appointment, Bozie was a mental wreck. He’d managed to imagine all kinds of scenarios from death in uteri to false pregnancy, disabled child and twins. Still he acted like everything would be fine. It was his job to support Phil, not the other way around.

Dr. Jin called them in like it was an everyday occurrence that Phil had taken Bozie to their meeting. Maybe this wouldn’t be anything special after all.

“So, as I said to Phil, I wanted both of you here to hear some new test results on the genetic testing.” 

_Thanks, Phil, for being so elaborate._ Bozie thought. “You got the results from three weeks back? From university?” 

Dr. Jin was a private practitioner, and Bozie wondered how he’d have the results handled from the university hospital so soon. Even the university hospital hadn’t called Phil about the results yet. 

“Actually, these are results for tests that I ordered. And I’m warning you, getting expedited genetic testing in private sector takes both favors and a lot of money.”

“But Phil hasn’t yet been called to the university to hear the results, so your sources were at least quick?” 

“I don’t know about that.”

 _What the hell?_ “Um, you’re saying that the university have the newest results but decided not to share them with us?” 

By then, Phil was talking over him, not wanting Bozie to talk for him. “Okay, so what you wanted to tell us?”

“The thing is.” Dr. Jin paused, just enough for Bozie to again go through all his horror scenarios. “The thing is, this fetus isn't a single parent child, but a genetic combination of two genetic donors.”

Phil looked a bit wild eyed while he tried to grasp the news. “So he’s not my genetic clone? But he’s still healthy, right?”

 _Two genetic donors?_ Now it clicked. “You mean I'm the other parent? Holy shit!”

Dr. Jin nodded, and made some kind of “oh yeah!” gesture, looking almost unprofessionally eager. “Yes, I’m guessing that you are the other donor, so congratulations.”

Bozie took Phil’s hand, and Phil grabbed a hold as hard as Bozie did. 

“But there is a but.” _There was always a but with these things._

“Our tests tell that the child has different genetic makeup and probably even different blood type than you, Phil. Your body doesn't like it.” _Back to the horror scenarios, then._

“So my body tries to expel it?” Later Bozie would remember this as a moment where maybe the first time Phil showed genuine worry over the health of his second child.

“Let’s say your body tries to adapt to the situation, to not to expel it.”

“But women always have kids with gene combinations different than theirs, and often with different blood types. It should be normal.”

“Yes, but for men, you seem to be the first. And that means that a lot can go wrong. A lot.“

Phil and Bozie just looked back at the doctor. Dr. Jin then noticed that maybe he wasn’t being professional enough and continued. “There is a high possibility of high blood pressure and pregnancy diabetes, and a possibility of kidney problems, pre-eclampsia, premature labor and miscarriage.”

They just kept looking at the doctor, not saying anything. Waiting.

“But it could go well, with no repercussions.” Dr. Jin didn’t sound very assuring.

“But you don’t believe it will?” Phil asked.

“I’m saying that it will probably be hard, but there is no reason why you couldn’t end up with a perfectly healthy baby.”

“Okay.” Phil seemed to be satisfied with his answer. Bozie still felt weak kneed from hearing about the possible hazards. He would spend the rest of the pregnancy worrying first about miscarriage, and when that scare would be done, about Phil going to a premature labor. 

“So we’ll start checking more frequently your blood pressure, blood sugar and protein levels in urine, just to be on the safe side. And I’d like to draw blood again, just to be sure.”

They were almost out of the door when the doctor still had something to say. “And one more thing. The child’s chromosomes that determine the sex, they are XY. It’s a girl.”

“It’s a girl? Um, what?” The man must have said it wrong, or they had heard wrong. Or they were all crazy.

Phil didn’t say anything but backed up to the nearest chair and sat down.

“Because the child has two genetic donors, it was fifty-fifty on if it’s a girl. Or rather 25 percent because it was either X or Y from both of you. Or rather 33 percent because of the YY pairing would not be… um.” Dr. Jin noticed then that his excitement was a bit over the line. 

“So I’m a guy having a girl. The first one ever, maybe.” At least Phil was talking, as in not being passed out. Bozie thought Phil was taking this rather well.

“But why? Why Phil?” Bozie knew it was stupid to ask, but he did it anyway. Either he would get an answer and be wiser, or not and then they could be fools together.

“Phil has gone through much more testing than the first time, which is of course understandable because I have never seen or heard a single parent being pregnant twice.” Their doctor got professional again. “And still the thing is, we don’t know. But I don’t think it’s because anything unique in Phil.”

“But Phil is unique?” _Okay, what was a one stupid question more? It’s not like having a cancer made you a freaking mutant or something,_ but still. Now it was the time to ask.

“People have hormone imbalance problems all the time, it wouldn’t be enough to trigger something like this. Okay, maybe not pro athletes, but there has been cases. And Phil stopped with the hormone supplements years ago, even before Adam, so it was probably not a factor.”

“Think it like this: It’s the same situation when the male pregnancies started to show up the first time. We still don’t know why it happens or what triggers it, but for some reason the time was right, and for some very few individuals, their personal situations were right.”

Bozie had a few thoughts about Dr. Jin saying that Phil’s condition was a result of an _ideal_ environment, but kept quiet about that. “So a male having a female progeny is just the next freak of nature thing, and Phil just happens to be the first one to have a super rare condition inside a super rare condition?”

“That’s pretty much it.”

“Okay. Yes, well, thank you.” Bozie checked that Phil was well enough to walk and then hustled him out of the room and herded them to their car. There they could really think. 

“So I’m having a girl.”

“Yeah. And I’m having a biological kid.” 

“Yeah.” Or not to think. They didn’t sound very intelligent at the moment.

“Just think, Adam will have a brilliant little sister to play hockey with, just like you did.”

“Let’s keep quiet about this still, alright?”

Bozie looked back at Phil, who now seemed to have collected himself remarkably quickly. Maybe the new information didn’t change the basic situation that much, after all.

“I think that the medical research side of this is keeping quiet about this intentionally. They don’t want the public to know about this, yet.”

“I don’t think they want even me to know about this yet.”

“Which is shitty because should they have told you, if not for anything else but because of the possible side effects? Even just that we’d now to keep an eye on them.”

Of course the officials would keep this as down under as they could for now, but they both knew that eventually it would be impossible. Even if the government would want to keep it a secret, it would be too big a thing to hide. Bozie didn’t know how important it would really be, an isolated case of a male carrier having a child with a genetic variation, but he guessed that it had to be huge. 

“I think that we should get a lawyer, too, just in case.”

****

They did get a lawyer the next day, recommended by Phil’s agent. Or Phil got a lawyer, as Mr. Stein refused to take them both as his clients, citing a possible conflict of interest if he’d officially represent them both. Bozie couldn’t imagine a situation where his and Phil’s interests wouldn’t align, but whatever.

But Bozie had currently more important things to consider, meaning getting used to the idea of becoming a biological father. Also he felt that it was his responsibility to make sure that Phil would get used to it, too, even if it should go without saying in a normal situation. Which with Phil, it wasn’t.

“So do you feel pregnant yet?” 

Phil had sat on the couch and lifted his legs up, looking exhausted. They had just mailed the signed papers to the lawyer, and the rest of their day was free, or as free as it went with a four-year-old. 

Phil didn’t look particularly pregnant. Bozie’s mind flashed to the cover of some gossip rag that he’d seen the previous day. The magazine had dared to photoshop a baby bump picture of Phil. It had looked ridiculous because of _a black turtleneck? Really_ but Bozie had a feeling that he’d end up buying the thing, just because.

“What do you mean? I feel bloated, if that counts.”

Bozie came to sit beside Phil on the couch. “I mean, you know. The last time you even sometimes forgot that you were pregnant. You totally skirted the issue as much as you could. I don’t think you voluntarily even looked at your midsection once.”

“I did! I did look at myself and talk to it and shit.” 

Bozie was left waiting. 

“A few times.” 

_Argh._ This was a delicate subject, and they really didn’t know how to talk about things like these. But they absolutely had to, if they didn’t want to repeat the shitshow that had been Phil’s last pregnancy. 

“I just mean, at the beginning you were really detached. I’m not blaming you of anything!” Bozie added quickly, before Phil got to say what came to his mind. “I mean that if you’d start your thing earlier, it could go easier? The getting attached, having a connection thing?”

Phil obviously really wasn’t feeling this conversation. “I could try. But I won’t talk to it yet, let me at least wait until it has ears.” It was pretty clear that Phil saw no reason to start connecting with a faux uterus and a less than a four months old fetus, even if it would make Bozie feel better.

Bozie really wanted to trust Phil on this, but he knew that he’d keep a close eye on things anyway. “Do you know how many requests I’ve got for a pregnancy video blog, by the way? People do care.”

Phil rolled his eyes. “For you to keep a pregnancy blog, or me?”

“Technically me, but they would love to see you. So they keep asking if I would shoot you instead of my regular stuff.”

“Not going to happen, but congrats for increased views.”

“Thanks.” As much as Bozie wanted to think that his viewers were there to see him, the sudden viewership of his regular five thousand (of which maybe only half were general daddy blog viewers and the rest were the Tumblr side of Pens fans) had gone up to ten and even twenty thousand per episode after the news of a second child had come out, and the viewership was still growing. 

Bozie felt flattered, but it wasn’t all fun and games: Some of the people were getting restless, spewing out opinions about Bozie’s relationship with Phil and Adam, and claiming that a second pregnancy was either unnatural or fake. And they didn’t even know about the two parent situation or the girl thing, yet. To prepare for that, Bozie was already considering closing the commenting section.

***

Phil was trying to get this being pregnant thing over as painlessly as possible, but it was hard when he had a doctor’s appointment at least once week. Both the university hospital’s neo-natal unit and the Male Pregnancy Research Center still kept calling him back for additional testing and checkups. They still hadn’t told Phil the big thing, and Phil hadn’t told that he already knew. 

On top of that came his private appointments with Dr. Jin. But on the other hand, what else was there left to do, when he’d been banned from even skating, never mind practicing with the team. So it was days filled with hanging out with Adam, in which Bozie was much more natural, or light exercise that was so light it was laughable. Or depressing, depending on which mood he happened to be on that day. 

Today his day would consist of a checkup with Dr. Jin. That also meant a shower and a dig for something to wear.

At the moment Phil’s paternity look consisted of sweat pants and a t-shirt, with a flannel shirt thrown on top. At some point he’d have to ask Bozie if the paternity line clothes had moved with them to Pittsburgh or if they had been thrown away. They were probably gone now. 

Phil went to get some juice (Unsweetened grapefruit juice, all the vitamins of orange juice, with less fructose, yay.) but then noticed that he had an audience. Bozie was doing video editing on the kitchen table while Adam was mesmerized by the morning cartoons. Except Bozie wasn’t looking at his screen but at him.

“What? What are you looking at?” Okay, so he was self-conscious, so what.

“You.”

“Am I presentable?” Phil wiped his shirt hem down, like that would somehow help make him neater looking. Phil knew he looked like crap. 

“Yes.” 

Phil saw Bozie looking at his midsection. That made him blush as always. “Stop looking!” Phil hissed, under his breath even when there was no-one else there but them. 

“I think you look great,” Bozie said, smiling. “Your hair is fluffier. I think you’re re-growing it.”

“Huh?” Phil hadn’t really paid attention to it, usually he just wore his black beanies like before. But now that Bozie had mentioned it, he did a quick mental checkup. His slowly receding hairline and thinning hair might have stopped their thing, and maybe even gone reverse. “Yeah. Maybe I am.”

“Remember to note that to the university scientist doctors, I’ll bet they’ll be delighted.” Bozie grinned.

“Remember to note that in your male pregnancy fetish blog, I’ll bet they’ll be delighted.”

“Not a fetish, it’s an aesthetic appreciation blog! And also not my blog!” Bozie yelled at his back when Phil was already almost out of the door.

***

At the appointment, Phil’s doctor was in a serious mood. Phil didn’t fret and didn’t ask. He just sat and waited Dr. Jin to tell him the bad news. As long as he’d get to go home in one piece, it would be okay.

“So I’ve been going over your files from your previous pregnancy.”

Phil already felt his defense rising. “And it went fine. Considering.”

“It says here that in your last trimester, you fell down and hurt yourself while exercising."

 _Shit._ "I wasn't actually hurt, I just fell from a bike."

"It was in your club's facilities?"

Phil didn't like where this inquiry was going. "Yes, I wasn't supposed to do exercising on my own then."

"So you were under supervision, and you still fell?"

"They did all the precautionary measures, they were right there, I just fell. It was a safe situation."

Dr. Jin sighed. "Phil, it could have ended differently. All incidents should be taken very seriously with you. I'll have to report this to the health services."

“But it’s already in the papers! And it’s years old incident, literally years old. What does it matter now?”

“It was written down, but not reported as an incident. And it matters because it could happen again, and it probably will, and the precautionary measures then weren’t enough.” 

_Fuck!_ Phil leaned towards the doctor and took his hand, trying to appear as appealing as possible. He was supposed to be appealing to others now, so he would try to make the best of it. "Please don't report it. I'm asking you. It's an old thing. Please."

His doctor just looked at him with compassion, or maybe pity. "With your previous pregnancy, this was somehow overlooked, but now... I won't be the only one reading through your old files. If I don't report it, then I become one of those who overlooked your health and safety. I'll have to report it.”

Phil felt very tired, suddenly. "So, what do you think will happen? Maybe nothing?"

"Could be. It depends of the people who review it." 

This was bad. “What do you think will happen, really?”

Dr. Jin looked away. “Well, counting in what we know about the pregnancy that we officially don’t, which also makes some interested parties keep a really close eye on you, there could be some measures.”

Phil was so fucking angry right now. He had trusted Dr. Jin to be on his side on this.

“I think that it’s you. You are just afraid that the authorities we’ll see you as a threat, and will take you down like those supposed abortion _terrorists_ we read about. You’ll have to show them that you aren’t harboring me, or else you’ll be fucked!”

Now Dr. Jin tried to seek Phil’s hand, but Phil was having none of it. “Phil, maybe there is some truth in that, too, but you knew this would happen eventually. They would have picked you in eventually. It’s not just them being paranoid, they are truly scared witless that something will happen to you.”

“But that doesn’t help me.”

“I know and I’m sorry.”

Phil rose to leave. “Me too. And don’t call me Phil. For you it’s Mr. Kessel.”

***

Bozie glanced at his phone’s clock when he heard a car turning to the driveway. Phil was early. Either his appointment had ended short or Phil had driven too fast, or both. 

Bozie went to the door. He had a bad feeling about this. At least Adam was in daycare so they wouldn’t have to go around him if it was something that would end up them throwing words.

Phil stormed in, looking ready to throw things, not just words. 

“What? What happened?”

Bozie could hear Phil’s words almost tremble, he was that angry. “Dr. Jin said that he’ll rat me out about me falling down the last time. He’s too tired of covering my ass.”

“Shit.” Yeah, Phil had fallen that one time, but it hadn’t been a big deal, then. What else there could be against Phil? “You haven’t been skating on your free time, have you?”

“No!”

Okay. Then-. “Fuck. You told about that guy, the support group instructor? Who you said wrote down shit about you?”

Phil froze. Obviously it hadn’t come to him, either, before this. “Okay, I just…” Phil had lost his words and just stood there, running his palms across his face in a futile attempt to calm himself down. Then he made a frustrated sound and turned to walk further in the house, probably to upstairs. Bozie lifted his hand to take a hold on Phil’s shoulder before he would bail out, but then only ran his fingers slightly over Phil’s hand when he went. 

Bozie had just turned to follow Phil when he heard the doorbell chime. _Who would come unannounced these days?_ He went to open the door in case it was something important.

Bozie slammed the door open in such a force that the person behind it took a big step backwards.

“Oh. Hi.” It was Janine, the PR-woman. At their front door. Hadn’t Phil told him previously that he’d take care of the PR side of things? And Bozie had wanted to trust Phil to do it, too.

 _Oh well. Never trust a pregnant dude with a name starting with a P,_ Bozie made a mental sticky note as he let the woman in.

Bozie stopped them right in the hallway, though. “It’s really not a good moment, Mam. Really not a good moment.” 

“Another time, then? I really have to talk with Phil about his exposure and the narrative that we’ll be supporting.” 

“Yes, another time.” Bozie kept nodding at her direction like a madman and tried to herd her out, leaning into her space.

But it wouldn’t do for her to go without at least trying, seemed to be Janine’s motto. She smiled and stood where she was, not trying to push through Bozie but not budging, either. “How’s your parenting blog doing?” 

Bozie was already regretting him being a decent person who just had to invite a woman inside, even if just to kick her out in private. “Good, good. Still less views than DIY Galaxy slime and Sidney Crosby playing beach volleyball shirtless, but it’s getting there.”

“You’ve had any thoughts of-.”

“Nope. He won’t participate, and now even less than before.”

“Just remember that we are on your side on this, okay? The Penguins organization have their interests in this, but eventually it’s up to what you want and need, okay? I have the owners’ word on that.”

“Okay. Thank you.” 

Bozie hustled the woman out of the door with a promise that Phil, or at least him, would call her the next day.

Bozie really felt pathetically grateful to hear that, he found out. At least one party in this crapshoot had Phil’s needs come before their interest. It might not help when you looked at the big picture, but it was nice to know that someone still thought of them as human beings. 

Bozie went to see Phil. The man would better calm down before it was time to get Adam, or Bozie would just have to entertain the kid somewhere else until he did. 

He found the other man lying on their bed, with lights out and Stella keeping him company. Still, he wasn’t sleeping but just lying there, breathing deeply. It came to Bozie that Phil’s whole concentration went to trying to keep it together.

Bozie went to lie down beside Phil. After a while he said, “It’s not just hormones, is it?”

Phil didn’t say anything but did a small nod. 

“What do your underground support network says about psyche medication?” 

It took a few minutes for Phil to answer. “Good for your soul, bad for your reputation. And good luck.”

Which Bozie deciphered to mean that medication was considered generally a good idea, but that the official use increased the Single Parent Health Services and Single Child Protective Services’ unwanted interest in you. And also that they couldn’t help with the possible unofficial use. They would just have to wait to see which would be a smaller harm, asking for meds through official channels or going without. 

***

And then they waited. Something had to happen, it was just a question on when and what. Bozie watched Phil retreat to himself once again. He had a feeling that the other man had pains, physical pains, but what he could do to help if Phil wasn’t ready to admit this one weakness even to his partner? 

Adam knew that something was different, but he didn’t know what. Bozie continued Adam’s daycare and other routines like nothing would have been different. Still, Adam had noticed that while Bozie continued to drive Adam to daycare and pick him up, his dad was home more than before and hadn’t been gone to overnight for a while. 

Bozie was actually waiting for the day care to slip up and ask Adam about his supposed little brother, and then there would be the _you are going to be a big brother!_ talk, and probably also the _Where do the babies come from_ talk, which was bound to be interesting.

For Adam, his dad was home. But on a level that the boy couldn’t quite grasp, Phil wasn’t there and available for his son, either. The result was a confused and clingy little boy who Bozie tried to both distract so he wouldn’t bother Phil, and shower him with affection to make up for it for him.

Bozie used his time running the household like nothing was wrong. Wake up the kid, make him ready for daycare, bring him there or maybe it was his carpool week to drive the neighbor’s kid, too. Stock the house and make sure it wasn’t too dirty in there and that everyone had clean clothes. Fetch Adam, feed him, figure out something else for him to do for the afternoon than watch tv of play with a tablet. 

Lately it had been way too much tv and tablet. The video blogger dad in Bozie felt guilty for that, but the _survivalist dad_ in him said fuck it, there were more important things right now than worry about your kid watching too much television.

Phil didn’t have to know that during his latest checkups, Bozie had used his time sitting on the kitchen table and doing nothing but waiting for _that_ phone call. _Waiting for the other shoe to drop,_ Bozie had thought and borrowed from his emergency liquor stash that he’d hid from Phil. 

Other than that, Bozie used his time browsing through new baby stuff. He didn’t buy much yet, but bookmarked his favorites for later. He hadn’t had the chance to do this the last time, so it felt like a research and a desensitization treatment at the same time. He favorited stuff, he visited girls’ sections, he ordered specialty and handmade items with long delivery times.

There was a method in his online spree. Bozie thought that if the baby things would start to gather at a slow pace, one-by-one instead of the instant baby survival kit that Phil had gotten the last time, the appearing baby things could help Phil to get more comfortable with the idea of a new baby coming.

There was however a risk that one of the stores would recognize his name and leak the information that Bozie had also bought stuff specifically for a girl baby. It would probably lead to nothing. There could be speculation of there being another baby out there, because the idea of Phil having a girl would at the moment be a topic suitable only for papers like News of the World than in anywhere else. 

But whatever. If anyone got too interested, they could always say that there was another baby arriving for a relative or a friend. And if it would really come to that, Bozie could take the speculation that it would be just him with the impending fatherhood this time, even if it would paint his as a cheater.

***

It took ten days of relative peace, and then things went down the shitter again.

Phil reluctantly told Bozie in the morning that Dr. Jin had again asked Bozie to join the checkup visit again. 

“Do you know what it’s about? Something about the baby?”

Phil shrugged like he wouldn’t know or care. Still his posture told that Phil was unnerved by the situation.

“Okay then. We’ll just have to wait until Laura’s mom picks up Adam, it’s his car pooling day." Phil had to learn that the rest of his family couldn’t just drop what they were doing for him, especially when they got no warning. 

When they got in, they were met by more people than usual. There was another white-coated doctor alongside Dr. Jin, and two suspiciously militant looking civilians in the corner. 

Dr. Jin introduced the other doctor as Dr. Martin, a handsome if rather bland looking man in his forties. They didn’t shook hands. The other men were left unannounced.

Dr. Martin was from the Pennsylvania University’s Male Pregnancy Research Center. To Bozie, it sounded awfully lot like a government funded science department of the Ministry of Health and Procreation, which also ran the Single Child Protective Services. Bozie hated Dr. Martin immediately. 

Dr. Jin cleared his throat. “Mr. Kessel, Mr. Bozak, before we start, Dr. Martin has something to say.” 

“Mister Kessel, first of all I want to congratulate you on your pregnancy. I know that the science side of your condition still continues to amaze us.” The man was smooth as fuck, Bozie thought.

Phil just kept standing, facing the doctor and with his murder face on. He was not going to help a bit in getting this conversation through, wherever it was going to.

“But it has come to our knowledge that there are risk factors in your environment that might endanger your health and the health of the child.” 

Bozie grabbed Phil’s shoulder so hard that it had to hurt. He almost couldn’t breathe. 

“You know that your health is in our best interest. Because of the recent information, with the authority provided by the state, I’ll have to recommend that you will continue your pregnancy in a state-provided facility.”

“What? No!” Phil got in the man’s face, while Bozie felt paralyzed, hanging on to Phil’s shoulder.

“I’m afraid that you can’t refuse. Effective immediately, on emergency basis, I declare you as a ward of the state.”

For a moment they all just stood there. Dr. Martin probably didn’t have much experience on people not following his orders instantly. 

“So if you would just come with me. Or rather, us.” The man gestured towards the unnamed men in the room. “I asked help from the Protective Services for escorting you safely to the Pittsburgh Male Pregnancy Health and Rehabilitation Center, where you can continue your pregnancy in a safe, controlled environment.”

When Phil still didn’t move, one of the escorts placed his hand on Phil’s back, trying to guide him towards the door. Phil made a furious sound and turned to the man. “Do not. Touch. Me!” 

Dr. Martin got impatient. _Good_ , Bozie thought. “I can call the police to escort you out if you don’t come with us. Really, this is the best for all of us.”

“Fuck you! Call them! I’m not going.”

 _Oh fuck this all to hell._ Bozie stepped between Phil and the men from the Protective Services. “Phil...” Bozie turned to address the other men. “Could we have a moment? Please?”

Dr. Martin and his men took a step backwards, obviously unhappy with the situation but willing to give Bozie a moment to try to settle this before calling to the police. Bozie guided Phil a couple of steps backwards, to a nook that was meant for offering privacy when changing clothes. Too bad there wasn’t a convenient back door for escape. 

At least they were away from the prying eyes of the others. It was an illusion of privacy, but Bozie would take whatever he got. He put his hands on Phil’s shoulders, not daring to cradle the other man’s face between his palms like he wanted to. 

“Phil, think about it. What will it look like if you’ll be escorted out by the police? It would be bad.”

“I don’t care.”

 _Shit._ “Well start caring, then, because there might be a hearing soon about you being fit enough to live on your own, with _Adam_ and I, and there it would look really fucking bad for you to have resisted officials!”

Phil pressed his fists against his eyelids. “I can’t, Bozie, I just can’t.”

“You have to. So stop fucking falling apart. It’s just for now. We’ll figure something out. It will be okay.”

Phil looked like he’d be fighting against a panic attack. “Okay. I’ll go with them. For now.”

“Okay.” Bozie planted a quick kiss on Phil’s mouth and pressed their foreheads together. He breathed at the same pace with Phil, trying get him to slow down. “I’ll call your lawyer, to see what can be done. And don’t do anything stupid, do you hear me. Just, don’t.”

“I won’t. For now.”

Bozie almost had to walk Phil to meet the men in the room. “Okay, he’s ready.” 

And off they went, leaving Bozie standing in the office with Dr. Jin, both looking helplessly at the closing door. 

***

This time, the Penguins PR kept quiet. It wasn’t even worth of a press release. It was just the Penguins’ official twitter, tweeting that due to health concerns, Phil had transferred to a medical facility for the rest of his pregnancy and therefore wouldn’t take part in any Pens activities. _He’s in good health and resting, we wish him all the best!_

And that was that, the end of paparazzi pictures. 

***

After Phil had left with the officials (to physically where, exactly? Pittsburgh Male Pregnancy Health and Rehabilitation Center was the promised destination, but it frightened Bozie that he didn’t know right at this moment where the other man was.) Bozie left Dr. Jin’s offices and allowed himself a moment of panic and rage at the privacy of his car before forcing himself to calm down and letting his parent gear to take over.

At this moment, he’d just have to trust that Phil would be okay. He would be extremely unhappy about being taken away, but from a technical standpoint, Phil should be safe and all his needs would be taken care of. Before Bozie would get to work on getting him out, there was nothing he could do for Phil, so he should focus now on making better matters that he did have power over.

Bozie couldn’t figure out how to tell Adam about this. It should have been just a regular checkup! Shit, they hadn’t even told yet about the pregnancy, and now he had to dump all this info on Adam all at once.  
How do you tell to a small kid that his daddy might be gone for months? Bozie would have to check in to his YouTubers’ community and seek out some folks with spouses in deployments. They would know, even if their situation weren’t as same as what Bozie and Phil were in.

Back at home, Bozie contacted Phil’s lawyer right away. Fortunately they’d had the foresight to hire a lawyer to whom these kind of issues were familiar, and Mr. Stein could start immediately with finding out where Phil was in the committing process, and establishing himself as his representative towards the officials.

Then there was the hard part: Telling Adam. Adam was used to Phil being away for over a week at a time and he was too small to have a grasp at longer times than that, but not being able to understand the actual enormity of Phil’s absence didn’t stop Adam from throwing a fit. It was just a normal toddler way to react. Bozie wished that he, too, could be so selfishly angry towards things he couldn’t change. 

“It’s just what daddy has to do,” Bozie explained to the boy. “And we can visit him!” (Bozie sure as fuck hoped so, because he was now on his knees promising it to his son.)

“And when Daddy comes back, he will have a little sister for you to play with.” At least Bozie hoped so. How the hell did you tell this kind of thing to a kid when you didn’t know if you would end up lying and were in the verge of kicking and screaming yourself? And he was supposed to be a parenting expert himself, at least according to his YouTube viewers.

Adam wasn’t convinced. “I don’t want a little sister, couldn’t daddy give it back and come home instead?”

 _Anger, denial and then negotiation_ Bozie intonated in his head, all the while explaining that no, they couldn’t trade the situation to a normal by just calling it off and returning the promised end treat. It was strangely placating to plan a parenting video in your mind, explaining a situation while the same situation was still ongoing. 

That night, their house felt emptier than it had ever felt, even compared to times when Bozie was completely alone. Their lawyer had promised to call the next day to update Bozie on Phil. The man had promised Bozie that Phil’s whereabouts would pop up already the next day, because it was still illegal to lose people in the system, it seemed like. 

They had gotten rid of all the beers in their house when they learned about the pregnancy, but Bozie had stashed the hard stuff for situations like this. Emergencies. He poured himself a glass and tried to think. 

Some times during Phil’s first pregnancy, going away, even for an errand, had made Bozie think what Phil was doing at home, and worry. Bozie had done his thing and then hasted back, repeating to himself that Phil wouldn't do anything stupid. Now it was a different thing because Adam was there, but brains were a tricky things. Sometimes they fooled you, made you think wrong things. 

Even when he knew that Phil would hate it there, and that Phil's surroundings were part of the problem and not a cure, a small part of Bozie was relieved that Phil was now in the institution. Now it was out of his hands. Now he could be sure that Phil was watched around the clock. It wouldn't be up to him anymore to make sure that Phil would do the right things, and remembering the gloomy indifference of depression at the time Adam was born, a part of him was glad of it. 

The relief also made him feel guilty as fuck. For that, he had the glass in his hand. 

Bozie went to sleep in their empty bed. It felt strange to think that only this morning they had woken up together, and now Phil was sleeping in some _institution_ instead of his own home.

Even with the aid of three shots, it took him a long time to fall asleep. Bozie knew that Phil had his online support group of questionable legitimacy. Phil had never shared information on it, and Bozie had never really asked, but he knew why it was a secret. So yay for the secret group, but now when Bozie was in some dire need of support, he had nothing. 

***

It took Phil’s lawyer twelve hours to get a confirmation that Phil had been admitted to the Pittsburgh Male Pregnancy Health and Rehabilitation Center, and twenty hours for Bozie to get a call through to Phil. 

Bozie squeezed the phone against his ear. “Are you okay? Do you need anything? I could bring you your stuff?”

“I’m okay.” Phil sounded a bit off, like a bit slower version of his current self. 

“You sound… Did I woke you up?”

“Yeah, I took a nap. They gave me something to help me sleep, so that might be it. It’s wearing off now, though.”

“Okay.” Bozie generally didn’t have anything against sleep aids, he used them himself from time to time, but he also knew a few things about them. And if the after effects of sleep aids were wearing off only after you had slept and woken up again, they had been too strong. But it was Phil’s first full day in the institution and Bozie had no knowledge of his mental state, so he’d just have to trust that the professionals knew what they were doing. The health care people were, after all, genuinely super invested in Phil’s pregnancy. That was the reason they were in this shit. 

“Do you have, like, a schedule in there already? When can I call? When can we visit you?”

“I’m not sure about the schedule. I think there is a period of intensive testing first. Someone said that I’ll be put on a regular schedule after that, so maybe you can visit then. 

“Where’s your phone? Do you need your charger?” Bozie was given a land line number, but Phil himself had answered it, so the phone was probably in Phil’s room.

“Dunno, at safe keeping? They don’t allow cell phones, tablets or computers here. Supposedly because they can’t guarantee that they won’t get stolen. But there’s computers at the rec room. Really ancient looking, I’ll have ask if they have a net here even.”

“Do you need anything? Clothes? They let you wear your own stuff? 

Bozie found out that the inmates (“guests”) could wear their own clothes, so he promised to arrange a delivery. They also managed to talk about Adam, and Bozie made Adam’s tantrum sound funnier than it had actually been.

Then Phil was interrupted with someone coming to tell him to get ready for his next evaluation in five minutes. When Phil got back on the phone, instead of usual goodbyes, Bozie just had to ask. “How’s the baby?” Because of course Phil had managed the whole phone conversation without referring to his baby once. 

To Bozie’s relief, Phil didn’t hesitate before answering. “Good, I think. Still there. Pressing my bladder and giving me heartburn. I don’t know how she manages to do that at the same time when the points for that are in the opposite ends of my intestines.”

Bozie laughed at that, but at the end it came out almost choked. “I still can’t believe that they can commit people against their will for being pregnant!”

“Bozie.” Phil’s tone was the one which bared no arguments. Bozie knew it meant _Shut up_ , and that had to mean that… The call was monitored. As probably were the computers, too. So Bozie would better shut up about how unfair he thought the system was. Gotcha.

“Oh, and it’s a girl.”

“What? Oh!” It took a second to Bozie to realize that Phil had been officially filled in on the situation and now he’d have to tell it to Bozie, too. Bozie also realized that they’d been using a female pronoun while talking about the baby. Counting in Phil’s blasé tone when announcing his news, if anyone was actually listening in they wouldn’t believe even for a second that it had been news to them. Oh well. 

“Oh yes, really exiting!” Bozie didn’t even really try to make this sound believable. I’m glad that you are okay, and I’ll call tomorrow?”

“Call me then. Okay, I got to go. Bye.”

“Love you.” Bozie got to slip in before the call was hung up. 

Bozie was left staring at his phone. So Phil was not good, but at least he was safe, Bozie guessed. Okay, good. 

Then, suddenly Bozie was filled with a longing for Phil so huge that he could feel it in his chest. He let himself dwell in it for a minute, but then shook it off by his sheer will. He had things to do.

***

A couple of days later it was Bozie who started their daily phone call with news. “I got a call from the state university hospital this morning.”

“You? Why? Was it the Male Pregnancy Research Center?”

“I think so? They want Adam and me to also come for testing. They already booked us an appointment. Or a hole day, rather. Next Thursday, I think. They are super into this if they want also us into their research on this.”

“Of course they do, if this baby really have two genetic donors, then you are very much part of it.”

“Unless there is something you’ll want to tell me?” Bozie joked.

“Ha. But I don't want Adam to be tested.”

“Um, they sounded like they knew what they were doing. I think it’s mandatory?”

“No it isn't. Adam is a kid and I'll decide what's best for him. They can't test him if I say no.”

“Phil… With your background, maybe it’s a good thing to test him.” It wasn’t just about Phil’s current freaky ability to carry children, either. Phil had gotten cancer when he’d been _nineteen._ If Adam had a predisposition to fall for the same illness, Bozie wanted to know. 

“I say no. I’m serious with this. I don’t care if he’s the secret of curing Ebola, I don't want him to be probed or his genetics studied. I don't want them to screw him up. And why did they call you at the first place?”

“Because I’d be the one bringing him in? Because I'm his parent?”

“No you fucking aren't. He only has one. You can do what you want, but you can’t make decisions for Adam.”

Bozie wanted to strangle Phil. Or maybe cry. Both. _The fucker, why it had to be this thing to break the camel’s back?_ Still, Bozie had known beforehand that Phil would be against Adam being tested in any way. He also kind of understood Phil's attitude. It had been Bozie who had talked him down when Phil had been ready to raise hell over his being committed. Bozie felt like Phil was starting to despise Bozie's way of going with the flow when Phil had already adopted a guerilla state of mind that he'd had during his first pregnancy. 

Now with his second pregnancy, Phil would probably end up fighting against the government about this, either starting now with this, or later with some other thing that would be thrown at them. 

“Okay, I got it. I won’t take him. Adam won't be included in this, if we'll only have the power to prevent it. But you'll have to confirm it to them. As you said, I don't really have the parental rights.”

Only now Phil seemed to figure out that he’d managed to rub the one thing that was the most precious to Bozie, his parenthood, to his spouse’s face. “I'm sorry, I didn't meant it. I'm an asshole.”

“Yes you are, and yes you meant it. But I understand what you’re saying.”

***

Ten days after Phil had been moved to the Pittsburgh Male Pregnancy Health and Rehabilitation Center, Bozie and Adam went to visit the first time. 

“We’ll go see daddy today, okay?”

“Okay.” Bozie had thought that Adam would be ecstatic to see his dad, but he seemed oddly reluctant. Kids were weird. On the other hand, he understood. It was an unknown situation for Bozie, too. But today, he’d be doing this more for Adam and Phil than for himself. He would support those in their family that needed it the most. There would be time for his own needs later. 

“Can Stella come too?”

And then Bozie had to make it a father-moment to explain that dogs weren’t allowed where they were going because someone could be allergic, and that Adam could say Phil hello from the dog.

At the first glance, the Center looked quite good, new and well maintained. Still something felt off, Bozie thought when he parked his car to the empty visitor’s lot. 

People, Bozie noticed. There were no people milling about. No visitors, day patients or personnel, not even one person sneaking a smoke could be seen outside the buildings.

There were plenty of personnel inside the main building, though. The visitors couldn’t just walk in, but they had to prove their identities and their belongings were checked. Bozie was surprised that they even let him to keep his phone. To Bozie, the special health center and premises for single pregnancies felt like a prison.

Phil waited them in a hall that was supposedly the day room where the inmates spend the time. They were also allowed to go to Phil’s room, but Phil had warned that it was really small, more like a sleeping department of a night train than a hotel room. Now, giving space for Adam to play was more important than privacy. There were no residents at the day room, though. Bozie wondered if Phil had told them to scram or if they just liked to keep in their rooms. 

Bozie had brought paper and pencils with them, knowing that there wouldn't be anything to entertain the kid with if he wouldn't provide it himself. The paper was in a huge roll, like a gift paper but white. "I thought that we'd make a wall sticker of you for daddy's wall, buddy."

"But it's not sticky!" 

Trust to kid to latch on to technicalities. He was going to be such a know-it-all in a few years. "I know but we can tape in to the wall, tape is sticky."

There was a huge, vintage, almost life-sized wall decal of Phil, in a full Maple Leafs gear, in Adam's bedroom. Bozie had bought it from eBay as a joke, but Adam, too little to understand things like irony, really liked it and had given the picture a good night kiss when Phil had been on game trips. 

They set their stuff on the bleak dayroom and made the best of it. To make their DIY wall decal, they made Adam lay on the paper and traced his form on it, then letting the kid loose with the crayons. 

While Adam was occupied, they got to talk about adult things. Or rather not really, because Bozie mostly used his one-on-one time on drinking the sight of Phil. 

Phil looked exhausted, Bozie thought. Even institutionalized, really. The facility allowed the inmates to wear their own clothes, but what Bozie hadn’t been informed before he packed Phil’s things was that no belts were allowed, and neither were pockets, zippers or strings in clothing. What was left was a bunch of loose knits and sweats, and no shoes if you didn’t have the special permission to go outside. 

“How’s it been here?”

“Boring.” According to Phil, his day program was breakfast, then a check-in with a nurse or a physician, light physical exercise and a lunch. After that there would be downtime for calls and visits, a time slot for meeting social workers, therapists and the like, a some kind of group activity (Bozie couldn’t guess which Phil liked the less; the child care lessons or the group therapy sessions), then dinner, and eventually light out. Wash, rinse and repeat. 

But even if Phil was telling the truth, boring wasn’t okay. Phil was thinner that what Bozie would have liked, and he had maybe been losing muscle, too. That was still normal, Bozie reminded himself, as the amount of exercise Phil got here was smaller than what Phil had done at home, and miniscule compared to how much Phil had originally worked to maintain his professional hockey player’s physique.

One thing that Bozie couldn’t keep his eyes off, however, was Phil’s stomach, which had, in this relatively short time, managed to grow from a bump to a perfectly rounded pregnancy belly.

Phil pretended that he didn’t notice where Bozie’s eyes were drawn to. “Did you know that Dr. Martin is my main physician in here?”

It took a moment for Bozie to place the name. “The same asshole that committed you here?”

“Yep, the same. Kind of strange that he came to hand-pick me from Dr. Jin’s?”

“You think that he has a special interest in you, because of the baby girl thing?”

Phil nodded. “A possible scientific break-through must drive a shit ton of scientists and doctors to the watering hole, so to speak.” Phil paused. “He also has an interest… Dunno. In me, I guess.”

Bozie didn’t know what to make of it. He hoped it was nothing.

On Adam's insistence, they made a wall decal of Bozie, too. That ended up mostly white and unfilled as Adam lost his steam with the coloring, but both characters ended up in Phil's room. 

Adam had wanted to make one after Phil, too, but seeing Phil not liking the idea of being traced, Bozie reminded Adam that he already had a Phil in his own room. They'd run out of paper anyway.

Bozie dug out a snack for Adam (Pre-packaged and inspected, with no extra portions. Apparently people trying to smuggle food in was a thing). It was mostly to fight off the boredom that would surely set in soon for the little boy. 

The whole thing was depressing. The facility, their visit, Phil. The premises were planned like there wouldn't ever be children visiting. Maybe there weren’t. There were no toys or family rooms. Outside there was a batch of grass and a bench, but Phil hadn’t earned that privilege yet. Bringing food to share was not allowed so they couldn't have a picnic or bring a cake. Afterward it came to Bozie that the promised family visits were designed to be more like conjugal visits than anything else. 

Bozie looked at Adam, who he’d had gotten to draw again for a little while more, and Phil, who chattered with Adam about the different colors they used in the pictures (because jersey colors, even imagined ones, were important.) After a while Phil's talk dried out and he just continued to follow Adam with his eyes. His left hand was wrapped around Adam's ankle. Bozie saw the father and son, one tongue-tied and the other pretending to be solely focused on his task. It was enough. It had to be.

And that was that. Their ninety minutes were up. Bozie felt almost relieved when he gathered their stuff. He felt guilty for being able to leave when Phil had to stay. 

"Maybe you shouldn't bring Adam anymore. I don't think this-" Phil gestured around him, to the grey unfriendly rooms, to the whole disaster of a family visit. "-is good for him."

"No, no, Phil. He doesn't care about that, he wants to see you. Fuck them, we're come every time, okay? Every time, I promise."

"I don’t know." Phil wiped his eyes and then snort-laughed at his reaction. "It's just hard. But I'm, you know. Fine."

“Okay.” Phil wasn't fucking fine. Bozie just had to believe that the same system that fucked Phil over would also supervise him close enough to prevent Phil from doing anything stupid. 

And about that conjugal visit thing… Bozie placed a quick kiss on Phil’s mouth. “I missed you.” 

“I missed you too,” Phil said, but he was already turning away, nerved by the situation. Maybe he thought that they were being watched. Hell, maybe they were.

Bozie dug up his phone. At least they hadn’t confiscated it at the gate, like they had done with Phil. “Okay, let’s take a picture. Adam, too.” 

Hearing his name, Adam roused from his coloring task and scrambled to sit on Phil’s side for the photo. Phil didn’t like taking photos, but Adam liked it, so he would do it, Bozie knew. He wrapped his free hand around Phil’s shoulders and made sure they all fitted the frame, baby belly and all. “Smile!” 

***

The next morning Bozie got a call from Phil’s lawyer. 

“Phil has asked me that I should let you know about all documents concerning him. So in confidentiality, I have been forwarded documents that you should be aware of.” 

Bozie pinched the bridge of his nose, anticipating a headache. All the lawyer speak aside, this didn’t bode well. 

“According to my information, it will soon be taken under evaluation on whether or not you are a suitable guardian for Adam Kessel while Phil’s officially the state’s ward.” 

“What the fuck? They could take Adam away? But, I'm his guardian! I’ve been taking care of him since he was born!” Bozie had never experienced the literal meaning of cold sweat before, but he was having a cold sweat now.

“But you are not his legal parent, only his guardian. And his only legal parent is now a ward of the state, so...”

“Oh my god.” This was bad. “I've never adopted Adam, just signed the guardian papers so I could fetch him from daycare or the like. We just never came to do it. It never felt such a big deal." _Because they never came around to actually talk about things like that._

“So while I look into your legal stand on this, I advise you to not make waves as long as Phil is in the facility. If you’ll get a note in your file that you’ve behaved aggressively or threateningly, it will stay forever and possibly be used against you."

“So, okay. No waves. Fuck.”

“And there’s another thing. I was passed these documents because the law says that the parents have to be informed when there is a child service act being prepared concerning their child. And that’s Phil but currently he doesn’t have the legal rights to make decisions regarding his children, so they just sent the papers to me, as an FYI.”

“…Okay?” Bozie could hear the intake of breath at the other end.

“So they are also investigating Phil as a parent. It’s about whether they will release the Baby Girl Kessel to Phil’s care at all after she’s born.”

“What the…? Could they really do that? They couldn’t do that, they have nothing on Phil!”

“They had enough to get him committed for the duration of his pregnancy.”

That was true. _Shit._ “But while I’m not officially Adam’s dad, I'm the other parent of the new baby, so shouldn’t I have a say in this?” 

“Actually, you don’t.” 

Bozie had to remind himself that Mr. Stein was on their side on this, for him to be able to continue. “I don’t, what do you mean I don’t?”

“You have to remember that it's the first case ever of two biological male parents that we know of. In the law, single parent children automatically have only one parent. If there is a partner, he or she has to adopt the child and that’s only after he’s born. You don't have parental rights because the law recognizes all males giving birth as single parents. They should have just made the law gender neutral in the first place, but it probably was easier to just make the single parent recognition as an addition to the original law.”

“So what should I do?”

“In the ideal situation, you could just adopt her after birth just like with regular single child cases, but it wouldn’t help you with the current problem. And right now you can’t start the adoption process with Adam, either, as they’ve taken Phil’s rights temporarily away in matters like this. You could make a case of it, sue the state for a recognition of biological parenthood. It would be the first case of its kind so you could get plenty of support for it from people who would want a ruling on it, but it would take years. Also, you being Canadian and Phil being American could make it tricky. If you'd be recognized as a father, what would you do with it? Maybe demand the kid's nationality to be changed to Canadian? It could go political.”

“Shit. So legally the kid isn't mine, not until I make a case of it.” Neither of his kids were, and Phil was currently a stare’s ward. The thought made him shiver.

“What do they want, Stein? What do they really want?”

“I’m just a lawyer so I could be wrong in this, but I think that they are after scientific knowledge. A breakthrough in this field would be major. So they’ll want an unrestricted access to the child and all of you. Cooperation. Later, more babies, with varying genetic combinations. An upper hand, political and in medical field. Maybe you aren’t the first. Probably somewhere in the world there are already other cases and scientific studies made on this, in secrecy.”

So they were just small pieces in the whole picture. And if some government body wanted to twist information to keep their subjects in line and as state’s wards, they could just do it.

“Okay, just, keep me informed? And look into this, there must be some legal way to get our rights back. Just, don't say anything to Phil about this, if you can? Not unless it comes an acute problem.”

“Tyler, Phil’s my client. I can’t keep information from him, not when it concerns him or his children.”

Bozie wanted to rip his hair out. “Just hear me out. Phil’s in a really bad shape, Stein. I don’t think how he could handle it. If the officials have decided to skip Phil in the need-to-know and sent the documents to you instead, maybe there is a reason.”

“Okay, I won’t tell right away. For… health reasons. But it’s my obligation to tell him, if not just now.”

“Okay, thank you.”

What the hell would they do? The most sensible thing would be not making waves. To do everything they could to avoid the marking of resisting the social services or health care. To keep quiet and just take it. 

***

“Mr. Bozak, we’d like for you to know how much we appreciate your help. Like I have said before, this is a situation without a predecessor, so any information, even something that you’d see insignificant, could be extremely valuable.”

So Bozie had done as the research people had wanted and went to be tested. Without Adam, as Phil had wanted. Bozie could compromise. 

Bozie nodded politely and waited for the interview to start. Personally, he didn’t see much point in interviewing him. He and Phil had obviously had sex, and they still needed to confirm it by asking? What would be interesting in him, outside him being a genetic donor by accident? And they had already taken samples. (Blood, tissue, saliva, and to Bozie’s embarrassment, urine, stool and semen, too). They had taken so many vials of blood that they had had to compensate with a tall glass of orange juice and a handful of iron and vitamin pills.

“Lets begin.”

And there it went. What kind of medical history he had? How long they had been together, did his family have history of male carriers, and did he have any other children? (One, Bozie started to say before he realized that they had meant if had fathered any other children. No, he hadn’t.)

Bozie was woken from the lull of white coated people asking questions in soothing voices to remember that this wasn’t for his benefit, when the questions swerved to include Phil. Had Phil ever experienced bleeding? When? What medications was Phil on? When? Could he give the names of the products? Nothing else? Was he sure? To Bozie’s knowledge, had Phil ever used performance enhancing drugs? Cocaine? Had Bozie?

“No, he hasn’t. And me neither.” 

The white-coat man in turn opened his mouth to continue, but Bozie made a noise for him to stop. “This is getting really uncomfortable. Are we done, here? It’s not my place to talk to you about Phil, you can ask himself if you want to know.”

“These are just background questions, for us to draw the full picture.” With his placating gestures and soothing voice, the man extruded calmness. “Now, could you describe your sexual habits with Mr. Kessel?”

“What?”

“There is a reason for these questions.” Again with the disarming smile and the calm voice. “Our purpose is to figure out if there were some hormonal cycle in Mr. Kessel’s biology before this current pregnancy started. We might be able to figure it out based on information on the possible changes in his libido. So, could you describe your sexual habits with Mr. Kessel?”

“Um.” Bozie really, really didn’t want to. And all the while there was some deep rooted voice in his head saying that he should just tell the nice white coated man what he wanted to hear, because you should trust your doctor. "I don’t think I will, Dr...” Bozie had forgotten his name. “Doctor. I think we are done here, I’m not feeling well and I want to continue in some other time. I’ve been fully cooperating and I think that we are done.”

Bozie rose to stand, feeling woozy. Damn bloodletting getting to his head.

Bozie marched out of the room, because what were they going to do, physically not let him leave? He had no idea what way was out but fuck it, he would find the exit eventually.

***

“So, I was thinking maybe you could help me with this?” It was Janine the Pens PR woman that was unlucky enough to have Phil as her special case. “It seems like we are having some difficulties reaching Phil?”

 _Yeah, no shit._ “It’s a closed institution. They need to vet all the calls first, so you could place a request to them, possibly. If you really want to reach him, don’t say that you are a media representative. I suggest that you’ll figure out something more official. Like that you would be his employer’s representative, needing to check some really official thing with him, because of reasons.”

“Oh.” 

The only persons Bozie knew that had access to Phil were himself and Phil’s lawyer. There must have been other parties that had found and tried to contact Phil, but as of his knowledge all of the attempts had been cut short. As the media saw it, Phil had suddenly and completely disappeared from the publicity, voluntarily.

“The people want to know, Tyler. And they grow restless when they don’t get what they want.”

“Yes, I know.”

***

“One of the doctors let it slip today that they are waiting a huge government grant for research on this.”

Bozie lifted his arm to place his phone better to his ear. Skype was available on in the day room, so that was for calling Adam. Adult conversations were by phone. “On you?”

“On the whole thing. I don’t remember what he called it… A full genetic variation male pregnancy, or genetically non-cloned male pregnancy, something like that.”

“So basically, unless they have other cases popping up, it’s about you.”

“I guess so. They probably want to call me _anonymous_ , or _patient A_ or something, though.”

Research funding would make Phil Kessel a very valuable subject for persons in power. Bozie didn’t like this at all. “Did he mentions any sums?“

“No, but I understood that it was a lot. Like, creating and funding a research institute -lot.”

 _Shit._ He and the lawyer should get in to it. If it was about government money, some of the documents on this had to be public.

But on the meantime… “So have you thought about a name?” Bozie had taken a habit of talking to Phil about his pregnancy in a positive light at least once on their daily phone calls. They had a pattern going on: First it was how Adam was doing, and how world was turning while Phil was locked away, and then _maybe_ Phil telling how he was doing, but then it was about the baby.

“No I haven’t.” Bozie waited patiently. Sometimes Phil was into this, if he was given time.

Then, “No close relatives, no hokey players and no biblical names,” Phil lamented. 

“That’s a good start, then. Only the rest of the girl names in the World left.” Bozie really fucking missed Phil. He wanted to wake up next to him, and bury his face to the other man’s neck, and then blow him as a good morning call. He wanted to see Phil trying to suppress his cursing while fumbling to put batteries in to some new toy, Adam eagerly waiting by his side. He longed to see Phil at home, eating the same pre-game meal for weeks because that was the meal that the team nutritionist had recommended and Phil didn’t care enough to try to change it up. 

Bozie closed his eyes. He wanted to place his hands on Phil’s stomach and try to feel the baby kicking. 

Bozie was almost too lost in his feelings to notice that Phil had stayed quiet instead of continuing the pander where Bozie had been leading them. “You don’t want to talk about this today, huh?” 

"After this, I don't want to have more kids."

 _Well that was some harsh ending of the baby topic._ "Okay." Bozie tried to sound nonchalant. "Did someone ask about it?" _Already? Those fuckers._ “And maybe this would be a better conversation for my next visit?” Meaning, they still didn’t know if their phone conversations were monitored.

"Yeah. They asked if we could do it again right away." And it looked like Phil was beyond caring about the monitoring at this point.

“Uh huh? And what did you say?” 

“What do you think? I said fuck no.” 

“Um, did you use those words? Do you think that’s a good idea to oppose it that loudly right now?”

“What, you think that we should do what they say? What the fuck Bozie?” He could hear the sudden anger in Phil’s voice.

“No, of course not! Just, I think that it would be better if you’d let it be understood, like…” Bozie made frustrated gestures for the empty room. “…That it would be something that you could be persuaded to consider. It’s still months until it will turn into a real issue.”

“I think that they insinuated that if I would do it, they’d let me go home now.”

“That’s shitty pressuring.” Bozie almost suggested that Phil should pretend to go along with their request, but then thought better of it.

"I don't want to be pregnant after this. Not ever, Bozie." That came out almost a whisper. 

Bozie wanted to kill someone. How could the system have so thoroughly chained down the strong and proud man who Bozie had fallen in love with? “I know. And I’ll support you all the way, remember?” 

“Yes, I do. And I got to go now, so bye. I love you.”

Bozie had just the time to squeeze his own _Love you_ in before the phone was slammed shut at the other end. For some reason Phil had ended the call short, but at least Bozie had gotten himself a “Love you” for it.

***

The waiting ended, in a way, two days later. Bozie knew it was bad when it was Phil who asked him to visit, and without Adam.

This time Phil led him to his cabinet-sized room for privacy before he let it all out. 

“Got a call from my lawyer.” Phil sounded like he’d start throwing things soon. “He’d been notified that the paperwork has gone through for the state to take custody of Baby Girl Kessel after she’s been born. They don’t even have to do it as an emergency basis, they can just take her, like she’d be a crack baby or something!

“Crap. Shit.” He was so tired of this, tired of the system that got bent when it was you against some fucked up idea of a greater good. Tired of being scared, tired of trying to support Phil who thought nothing of it. 

Of course Bozie had known that something like this had to have been under preparation, but he hadn’t thought that it would have gone through so quickly. There were still months before the baby would be born.

Phil gingerly sat down on the edge of his bed. “Got a visit from my social worker, too. Apparently I’m a _case._ ”

“Yeah?” This was news to Bozie. 

“Uh huh. He didn’t exactly make a written offer, but _if_ they would take the baby into custody, he said that I could still see her if I would stay here voluntarily.”

“That…” Sounded, horrible, actually. So they’d made an offer: Either Phil could walk out of the hospital and leave his baby, with maybe a possibility of losing his boy, too. Or he could stay with the baby and submit himself more or less to be a research subject. 

“They can take the baby right after she’s born. And for what? For fucking what, what did I do? What crime did I do?!”

Bozie was just so tired. “Maybe it’s because they know that you’ll be fighting against them in every step! Maybe if you’d just-.”

“Stop it right there.” Phil was seething. “So you think it’s me? That it’s my fault?”

“No, of course not, but what good it does it do to go all kicking and screaming in every turn?! If they’d know that we’d cooperate with them, maybe they wouldn’t be so eager to lock you away!”

“Could you just once in a blue moon stop doing and saying what they want you to do? I don’t want to hear that bullshit. They don’t think about what’s best for me or the baby, they think about what’s best for them, and nothing else. So shut up about just doing what they want, okay? They could take the baby, is that what you want?”

Fuck this shit. “That’s just it! They could take her, just like that! And you bitching and moaning won’t help! It’s not even about if they can take her, because they fucking can, it’s about if you want to go with her or not! You want to see her ever, you better do what they say!”

“Fuck you for giving up on us, Bozie! If you give up, if you think there isn’t any other solution than to do what they want, then there most certainly isn’t!”

They were left staring each other, breathing hard. Bozie didn’t know what to say.

“You are the father of my kids, but we? We are done. Get out of here.”

“Phil-.”

“You can come back later, but you better go now.”

So Bozie walked out. He literally walked out on Phil and couldn’t not see the irony of him swearing to himself before that he’d never, figuratively, do that to Phil.

If Phil was serious, it would mean that they were now done, or on a break or something. And as Bozie was not legally Adam’s parent, where did this situation left him, really?

The thought of continuing life without Phil and Adam felt crushing. He couldn’t even imagine it, living a single life. It literally made his chest hurt to think a life without them.

His evening was spent in a haze. Thankfully he’d gotten better at pretending in the last few months, so he could put up a façade good enough for a four year old. 

Phil hadn’t meant what he said, Bozie reasoned. It had been just Phil lashing out because of his mental state. And because this whole ducking situation. Phil had just too much on his plate right now. Bozie could let it slide and fucking support Phil like he had promised. He could do this.

It wasn’t until the night when Bozie let himself to break down. He went to his liquor stash and took a bottle of whisky, pouring a good full glass of the stuff. He’d do what he wanted, and all underage people in the house were well asleep. 

Bozie sat down to the kitchen table and tried to make sense of things. Could he have two seconds to think selfishly? He’d put the wellbeing of others above all for months, now. Maybe years. 

He took a big swallow. Phil was an ungrateful, unthoughtful shit, who had Bozie and his online group and Dr. Jin and his sister and his whole fucking team to support him, and still it wasn’t enough. And what Bozie had when he was breaking down, who supported him? A four year old and a fucking dog, that was what he got.

All this time Bozie had repeated to himself how he had to be the strong one. But why? Why did he? Why couldn’t he break down with the rest of the people facing disastrous problems?

And Phil… Bozie loved Phil, but why was it so fucking hard for Phil to have his baby, anyway? Bozie would do it fucking himself if he could! Couldn’t Bozie at least once think the new pregnancy as the miracle it was, like how everyone else was seeing it, instead of submitting to Phil’s bleak frustration over this supposedly terrible thing that was happening to him? What the fuck was wrong with Phil, anyway? Fucking whiner. 

It took a few hours and another full glass to a new thought to suddenly come to Bozie. _He could leave. If he wanted it, he could just leave._ He had no legal obligations to anyone or anything in Pittsburgh. No-one’s well-being would be up to him, no-one’s lack of freedom and happiness would be on his conscience. No-one but himself had tied Bozie into this situation. He would be free to leave if he wanted to.

If he could think about himself and his own wellbeing first, he would leave. Because he had to admit that this situation wasn’t healthy, maybe not to anyone involved. 

He poured himself another drink. This required some thinking.

***

Bozie woke up alone. Usually nowadays Adam would join the main bedroom bed sometime during the night, and Bozie seldom had the heart to carry him back to his own room. 

He had a hell of a headache, but at least he’d managed to get to his bed at some point. The sun shone to his aching eyes for the windows that had been left uncovered. 

So, he’d done some heavy drinking last night. Because of something important? Bozie remembered that he’d discovered something, but then it got all fuzzy. He still felt too achy to try to figure out what it had been. If it was important, it would come to him again, he decided.

The morning took a turn to worse only seconds later then Bozie realized that he'd woken up to Adam crying. Only this time it wasn't the quiet and ashamed crying near the bed that followed bad dreams or lately more frequently, bedwetting, but straight up bawling from a room further down.

It wasn’t urgent crying or painful crying, so Bozie gave himself five seconds to just breathe and locate his phone to see the time. Seven thirty. Usually he’d be waking Adam up at this time and not the other way around. He hoisted himself up to start the day with his son's problems. 

Bozie found Adam in his room, crying his eyes out. Bozie stopped to take the scene in. The wall nearest to the door, previously cheery yellow and marred only by Phil's life size wall decal, was now scribbled all over with black marker. Or rather, it was the decal that was aggressively scribbled over, the strokes starting from the middle and going way over the lines and to the wall. 

"Adam what the-!?"

Hearing Bozie, Adam just cried even louder, his whole body trembling. "I'm sorry I'm sorry!"

Bozie was feeling woozy, taking in all the effects of his hangover now that he was up. 

This was just great. This didn’t look like a child’s attempt at coloring. But rather purposeful destroying. Adam had even picked up a chair to reach higher, and when the wall decal could be just peeled off, the whole wall would still need to be re-painted. And also, what the hell.

"Okay, come here." Bozie took his crying son to his arms, trying to settle him down. He was achy and angry and really not up to this shit, but what good would it do to blow up to a four year old. “It’s okay, buddy. No-one is angry.” 

Bozie looked up to the wall, at Phil's image ruined by the angry strokes. How could one express their anger towards their father when they were four, when they didn't understand the feeling and their dad wasn't even there? Like this, you expressed them like this. Fuck. 

"I hurt daddy!" 

Bozie hugged the little boy harder. "No you didn't, it's just a picture, shh." In Adam's mind, he probably had hurt his dad. 

"I want my daddy." At least Adam's crying had settled from hysterical to just sad. It would peter out when there wouldn't be physical tears left. Bozie sat on the floor, held his kid and tried not to cry himself. He wanted Adam's daddy back, too. He was angry, too. 

The anger triggered a memory of the previous night. Oh yeah. First Phil had told him to fuck off, and then he’d thought about leaving. Even thinking about it felt like poking a wound. _I would never leave them,_ Bozie thought carefully. It felt like an experiment. Could he think it honestly, or would some echo from the previous night come and spread doubt over it?

 _I would never leave them,_ Bozie thought again, this time with force and conviction. It sounded true. No lingering after thoughts. Bozie didn’t know if he was happy or not about it, but at least he knew his direction now. It would never be away from his family.

***  
It took almost an hour for Adam cry his cry and Bozie to comfort him back to his natural calm sate. Bozie used the time missing coffee and imagining different scenarios of confronting Phil, depending on how serious Phil had been. Would Phil be the remorseful one, or would he expect Bozie to apologize instead? Because he would if that was needed to make truce. He could lament if I t came to that. This wasn’t the moment where Bozie would stand his ground just because. 

Then they finally left Adam’s room for Bozie to make coffee and find a breakfast. Bozie let Adam get away with some sugar bomb cereal because he wanted the boy to feel that he wasn’t being punished. Then he made some eggs for himself because they were the best for hangovers and watched the sugar-loaded kid try to teach Stella new tricks. 

Bozie switched the activity to watching cartoons to bring both the kid and the dog down from their hyperactivity for Adam’s naptime. _Letting kids watch tv did have it’s purpose and a parents shouldn’t feel guilty about using it from time to time_ , Bozie intonated in his mind, like he’d be making one of his videos.

Bozie was deep into planning his next parenting v-blog video when their doorbell rang. Half of Bozie’s attention was focused on keeping Stella from slipping out of the door, so he didn’t even particularly watch who it would be. “What?”

But this time it wasn’t a FedEx guy, Mrs. Bloom or neighborhood kids asking to walk Stella. 

There were two women standing at his door, looking at him somewhat startled. Bozie was startled too, because what the hell? The women wore clothes normal enough, but somehow their appearance screamed _Government officials._ This was bad. 

“We’re from Single Child Protective Service.” The women told their names and showed him their IDs like they were agents or something. 

“And you came to do… A home inspection?”

“As Adam Kessel’s legal parent is at the moment unable to take care of his child, the state has to make sure he’s well taken care of.”

“So it’s a home inspection.”

The older of the women nodded. Bozie had no idea what her name was. He hadn’t been listening. 

Bozie did a quick mental check. It was now just before noon, so at least he shouldn’t be hungover anymore. He might as well be, however, since he was still wearing old sweats that he’d grabbed from the floor that morning, and he hadn’t showered. He was also shirtless, which might partially explain the women’s faces when he’d opened the door. He might not be a professional hockey player anymore, but he still worked out and sported a six-pack. 

Bozie didn’t need a secret online group to know what this was all about. The name of the game would be for Bozie, and Adam too if he could, to be perfect. If these fuckers would find any fault in Adam’s living conditions, it could be used against them. Bozie’s mind flashed to Phil’s story about the group leader in the official support group, who Phil sensed twisting things and making shit up no matter how well matters were presented. Watching the women now watching around their home, Bozie understood what Phil had meant. 

“Okay, come on in then, I guess. Adam just went to a nap. I’ll just go and grab a-.” He quickly went to fetch a shirt and started the conversation again while pulling the garment over his head. It was Phil’s but Bozie didn’t think the women would notice the difference.

“Anything you’d like to know? Like to see?” That came with a polite, open smile. _Don’t show them your fear,_ Bozie thought. He half-heartedly hoped that some of Phil’s pregnancy appeal would have stayed lingering at the house. If it was true and it was hormonal, that might even be possible. 

“Just do what you would normally do. We are here just to observe so we try to bother you as little as possible. We might ask some questions, though.”

“Uh, sure. I was just making lunch for me and Adam.” Bozie side-eyed their kitchen. Okay, it definitely wasn’t clean, but he’d had more important things to think about than that. At least he’d had the sense to trash the empty whisky bottle before breakfast. A point for him for automatically putting alcohol away from where Adam could see it. He tried to think when he’d seen their cleaning lady the last time, but didn’t come up with anything.

Bozie’s plans for the day had mostly consisted of using Adam’s nap time for a call to their lawyer, a dead cold serious call to Phil, and if that didn’t go downhill, later a monitored family Skype call with Adam. Then it would be some floor hockey and Angry Birds to distract Adam, who tended to act sad or angry after the calls, no matter that the boy always eagerly awaited them. 

Bozie quickly scrapped all three calls off from his schedule, at least until the eagle eyed ladies would be gone. Okay, so. Maybe they would go to a park instead. Or a playground. Playgrounds were wholesome. And also not their house, where Bozie didn’t want the women to be.

Bozie making lunch was actually him defrosting lunch, but it was home-made cashew and spinach lasagna, which the inspectors surely would appreciate. Bozie applauded himself for putting the cereal box back to the cabinet earlier.

“Do you shoot your videos here, at home?” The question came with distaste. The lady was older, but she did know that they were living in this side of the century, right? It was not like he was shooting porn.

“Yeah, in the guest room, I have a lighting set there. You’ve seen my videos?”

The older lady shook her head, but the younger one nodded, intrigued. 

“You’ve seen the IKEA episode?” That was one of his most watched ones. And him losing Adam in the bin of stuffed rats hadn’t even been staged. 

“The moment when you were like half done with the cake and go _but I didn’t buy this, who paid this?_ it was hilarious! And the follow up where…” She petered out, remembering why they were there. Then she straightened her back and went back to her distant eyeballing of their home environment. Oh well, Bozie thought. It wasn’t like Bozie would have really believed that finding a fan would eventually help their case much.

Then it was the time to wake Adam up. It was Adam’s nature to warm slowly to people, and being just woken up wasn’t his best moods. Bozie just prayed that the boy would be in his best behavior. 

“You want to see his room, probably?” The older one nodded. The other one just kept looking around, like she was looking for crime scene clues.

Bozie was already leading them towards Adam’s room when it came to him. The wall decal, Bozie suddenly remembered. Fuck, how would he have forgotten the incident in just the same morning? If Bozie could use his two cent psychology to figure out the meaning of the ruined wall decal, so could the Service workers. 

They were already on Adam’s door when the boy came out, dragging his blanket, sleepy groggy and in the verge of tears again. “How’s my boy?” Bozie scooped the kid up, blankie and all. “You slept well? Or not? Did you have a bad dream?”

Bozie used his body to close the door and turned to carry Adam to living room. The women were so fascinated by Adam (or possibly his distress) that they didn’t notice that their invitation to inspect Adam’s rooms had been cut short.

Then there was distracting Adam with the women to make him forget his tears, their de-frozen organic lunch, and a visit to a playground. Bozie dragged the outing so long that the inspector women realized that if they wanted to go back in with Bozie, it would be a long wait. Then they pretty much gave up and continued their way, promising a report from their visit and implying that there might be another one at any given time.

Bozie was left at the playground’s parents’ bench, alone. Right now, an adult, non-layer and not-Phil friend would be great, he thought, because Bozie was left seething, The situation had felt too scary and too surreal for Bozie to feel much of anything while the visit had been ongoing, but now he was furious. What the fuck did the officials think, coming here to see if they could find a reason to get Adam, too? They had Phil, wasn’t that enough? 

There was nothing wrong in Adam’s home environment. Everything was as well as it could be in these circumstances. Bozie was even more of a dad to Adam than what Phil was. Bozie had _quit hockey_ to be with Phil and Adam, that alone should have made him a fucking father of the year for years to come.

And it wouldn’t even matter, Bozie knew, if they really wanted Adam. They would make up a reason if it was on their agenda to get the boy.

Bozie watched as Adam played, every now and then looking up to him, making sure that everything was okay and his father was watching him. Bozie smiled at the boy weakly. If the Protective Services would take Adam away, maybe they would let Phil take care of him at the institute? A complete replacement of a child to a new environment should be the last option in protective child care. They even let children stay with their mothers in prisons in like, Finland. Bozie had seen a documentary on it. 

Still, Bozie doubted that if the worst would came to be, it wouldn’t be solely Adam’s good that was taken in consideration. And Phil… Bozie remembered thinking, when Phil had been in the hospital the first time and they’d heard the news about the pregnancy, that if it was life-threatening, then it had to end. Now Bozie couldn’t help but to think that there were other kind of life threatening conditions too than straight physical. It filled him with fear, and Bozie had no other options than trust Phil’s well-being to the same institution that he blamed for things going to shit in the first place.

Bozie sat and watched Adam. He had now missed his call time to Phil, and with no text messaging or email, there was no way to explain the reason for his silence until the next day. Bozie could imagine it, Phil thinking that Bozie was keeping intentional radio silence because of their fight, when at the same time Bozie had been keeping up a whole different theater today for entire different reasons. 

Maybe he could call Sidney Crosby for some support? He was Evgeni Malkin’s baby daddy, so they were, in some parts, in a similar situation. Bozie huddled in his jacket, even when it’s almost too warm in his clothing as is. But really, the situation wasn’t the same. He was just visited by Protective Services. His home life and ability to act as a caretaker was under investigation. It felt bad, and it sounded suspicious, and Bozie didn’t want to burden Crosby with it. He didn’t really know the other man, either, or particularly trust him, and he didn’t want to bring his problems up to a stranger. 

He should still call the lawyer asap about the Protective Services visit, though. Just in case that the services would actually set things going right away, as an emergency basis. 

Bozie put his phone back to his pocket. He would call when he’d get home.

***

The next day, before Bozie managed to make his call, Phil’s lawyer called him, to ask Bozie to visit the institute during the day’s visiting hour. 

“What? What’s happened? Did the Protective Services contact you?” If they would want both Phil and Bozie, and the lawyer present in person, it could be really serious.

“Nothing’s happened. Phil just asked if I could ask you to come in person.” 

At that moment Bozie realized that he hadn’t called about the previous day’s visit. Actually, he hadn’t told to anyone about it. 

But before Bozie got to speak, Mr. Stein continued. “I’m the only person he can call without call time limitations, and it looked like Phil felt it important to ask you to… _Change your plans from what you previously agreed on,_ the lawyer cited. “But really. Please try not to use me as a message service, next time, okay? Until it’s really important.”

“Uh, about that...” 

“Damn. Please don’t say that it really important.” Stein took a moment. “And what did you say about the Protective Services earlier?”

And then Bozie had to tell the other man about the visit. Who’d they been, what they had said and done, what Bozie had said and done. 

“You think that they told Phil about it, either beforehand or afterwards? I don’t see why, though, as the inspections are supposed to come without warning, and they already skipped Phil over any other decision concerning him and went straight to me. Was that why he wanted you to visit today? Because in that case, I should come, too.”

“Um, no. It’s okay.” It was way too early for this conversation, Bozie thought. “I think it’s because we… Yeah, we had a fight the last time I visited, and then I couldn’t call yesterday because of the inspection, so Phil probably thought that I blew him off. So it’s because of that. Probably.”

Stein didn’t express an opinion over that little news, or let any surprise in his voice to come through. “Okay. You’re on your own then. I’ll inform him that you’re coming. Please settle your thing, and while you’re at it, tell him about the visit too, because I’m not telling it to Phil for you.”

So, Stein wasn’t happy with Bozie, that was clear. Bozie ended the call and went to get Adam ready. Today would be a daycare day after all, because Bozie had a visit to make.

Phil was there waiting for him when he arrived. Bozie had planned to waive their argument aside as soon as possible, but it was hard to be the one to speak first when their conversation couldn’t start before they got their relative privacy.

Phil took his hand and led them straight to his suffocating cabin room. Phil looked thinner again, Bozie thought. In their conversations Phil had mentioned that the food here was disgustingly healthy and ridiculously portioned, but did the nutritionists doing the calculations understand that Phil still had a body of a professional athlete that burned calories like a furnace? 

“Do they feed you enough here?”

“What? Yes, what, uh…” It seemed like Bozie’s comment had thrown a wrench into whatever speech Phil had prepared.

Phil turned to meet Bozie face to face. “Anyway, about the other day…” And there went Bozie’s plan to talk first. “You know I didn’t mean it. I don’t really think that you’d just do what you think would be the easiest. I… You know I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, I’m just in a very selfish mental state right now.”

“You don’t have to appreciate a thing, it’s alright for you to feel like you feel.”

Phil wasn’t in the mood for simply forgetting it. “No it’s not. I was an asshole. Let me take it back?”

Of course Bozie wanted Phil to fucking take it back, but he had to make it sure. “Take it back as, you don’t want to break up with me?”

“No!” Phil grabbed Bozie’s hands. “No, I don’t want to. Ever, okay?” 

Bozie wanted to ask _are you sure?_ but then just went with “Okay” and a quick kiss. This, this was great. He curled his hands on Phil’s and saw the hesitant smile on the other man’s face. For a second Bozie considered just leave things like that and tell about the Protective Services’ visit the next day. Couldn’t they have a fucking moment? 

But no, they couldn’t have, because life was unfair. “Okay, so, now that that’s done, I’ll have to tell you something.” 

And then Bozie did it, told Phil about the visit from the first ring of the doorbell and him opening the door looking like a dead-beat DILF, to catching Adam having a bad dream and finally the waiting game at the playground. Bozie saw Phil’s face go whiter as the story went, and he hoped that he could have assured his boyfriend that really, there had been nothing actually incriminating and there was nothing to fear. Still he left any assurances out because they just didn’t know how it could go from here.

After, Phil was left as shaken as Bozie had been when in the playground. “If they’ll take Adam, I don’t know what I’d… This whole time the only thing that’s been keeping this,” Phil gestured the room, the whole situation, “remotely okay is knowing that he’s with you. But if not… I just don’t know…” 

Bozie took a hold of Phil’s shoulders, carefully at first because he didn’t know if the touch would be welcomed, and then harder, like the physical act would help Phil keep it together. “If… If they’ll blame me, that I’m the bad influence who the kids need to be moved away from… I’ll move, okay? If it’s needed for you to be able to return home with Adam and the baby, I’ll go.”

That didn’t assure Phil even a bit. Instead it got him angry. “Don’t you dare to even think about it. That’s not an option. The kids will need you, and I’ll need you. I couldn’t do it without you.”

Which was exactly what Bozie wanted to hear, but he needed to be realistic, here. “Okay, just… If it would ever really come to that, you’d need to stay with the kids. You know that.” 

“Just shut up. Stop thinking about it. If worst come to be, you walking out would solve nothing. You promise me. You will not walk out on me or the kids.”

For a second Bozie flashed back to only a couple of nights ago, how he had felt then. _If he wanted it, he could just leave._ But what he had felt then, it had been the product of the circumstances. What was done was done. And he would never tell Phil what had gone through his head that night.

He would do this. But it might not matter, the others could still be taken from him. But this he could do. He raised his hands to cradle Phil’s face. “I promise.” 

It was hard to leave Phil and go back home and back to the waiting game, like nothing would have happened. Get Adam, tidy the house, and make a video. Maybe he could make a video on how hard it was to tidy the house. 

There was nothing to be done at the moment but wait, Bozie felt like. For their lawyer to get things done, to the Protective services or any other official to finally officially do something, for the other shoe to drop…There was nothing in Adam’s home surroundings that Bozie could make look more appealing. Bozie didn’t even know what it was they were waiting for, but he felt numb. 

***

A couple of days later Bozie was at home, spending his evening doing his blogger work. There was something relaxing in video editing, talking shit with his YouTube blogger community and corresponding to his mail. The amount of baby products that companies wanted to give him for free to use in his future videos with the baby was astounding. Even regular people were sending gifts for the baby and he was harassed regularly in the video comments to post a P.O.Box address for fan mail and gifts. Maybe he should do that so the Pens office would get rid of the mail that the more insistent people sent to the Penguins fan mail address instead.

When Phil’s pregnancy became public, Bozie had considered doing unboxing videos where he would just open all the cards and gifts they had received, but then had come all the medical crap and when Phil had been taken into custody, Bozie had buried all the fun baby video ideas in deep. Him reading aloud well-wished for them felt too much like rocking the boat while they were under investigation for being even fit parents.

Then something caught his eye. 

_You look tired. Are you okay?_

It was a YouTube comment in his latest video. Just an innocent question, from someone Bozie didn’t recognize, between a gushing comment and a bullying one. 

He was left staring at the screen. It was a late night, Adam was asleep, their home was tidy, and everything was in order. _Are you okay?_

 _No I’m not,_ Bozie thought. They took away my expecting-a-baby videos, he thought, and then almost laughed at the absurdity of his thought. _It could have been wonderful time for me, Phil and Adam, and you fucking stole it._

***

Bozie had come to meet Phil in person again. He’d come to visit only two times a week, maybe three if he brought Adam. He loved to see Phil, but every meeting came with a nagging fear that some faceless person in power would decide that the meetings wouldn’t be good for Phil’s health, and that might be the end of it. Prisoners had written down rights to meet their family, but Bozie and Phil’s lawyer had looked into it and there were no laws covering this. While Phil was here, the persons that were responsible for his well-being had all the rights to dictate his surroundings, and that included visitation. And America was supposed to _love_ single parents, for fucks sake. 

When he saw Phil, he was glad that he had come. “What’s the matter? Has something happened?”

Phil didn’t look well. Instead of his regular frustrated sadness that he nowadays usually portrayed, he now looked more anxious and lost than before. 

“Dr. Martin had a meeting with me this morning. He said that he would support my release if I would agree on to be released strictly under his care.” 

There had been discussions about releasing Phil? Bozie had been under the impression that Phil would be held here at least until the kid was born, and the situation would get re-assessed only then. “Under his care how? So it would be a release from this institution, but not to your own home? It could still be a good thing?” _At least better than this_ , he meant.

“No, I would be literally under his care. He would be my legal guardian. I would be living in his house.”

“What the-. Why would he do that? What would he benefit from it?”

“I don’t know. He’s fascinated with me?”

It hadn’t come to Bozie’s mind that the state’s guardianship could be handed over to a person. The possibility was far from what he thought was right. Maybe that was the reason that had prevented Bozie from getting the idea to try to get Phil released under his care. “That’s fucked up. You are an adult. They can’t just give your guardianship to some man, like a set of keys.”

“I know. But now I’m a ward of the state and currently he’s the head of this whole operation; me being here, they trying to gain I don’t even know what with all their testing… So what’s the difference, really?”

It wasn’t Phil’s way to face these things with indifference. That was new. And how fascinated the doctor had been? ”So what happened, exactly? He just came to you and suggested it?”

Now Bozie saw Phil blush. It was not the cute embarrassed blush, but rather the emotional, frustrated anger blush. What was he embarrassed about?

“He was… Civil. Polite. Interested. He said that he’d followed my whereabouts since he heard about me, right from the first night when I was brought to the hospital. He said that if I would come to live in his premises, no other supervision would be needed.” It sounded unbelievable, and not in a good way. “He said that he had a room for me already set up. For me and the baby.” 

_Shit the baby._

“He showed me a picture on his phone. The walls were yellow.”

Bozie wanted to sit down. _What the actual fuck?_

“I said no, that I’d rather stay here and then go home as soon as I could.”

From Phil’s reaction, Bozie guessed that the other man had downplayed his story on how the meeting had went and what actually was prepared here. If Dr. Martin had really gone as far as showing a picture of the supposed nursery prepared for Phil and the baby, from his personal phone even, it was more than a little creepy. What did he want? Play a house? 

A thought came to Bozie. “I think that he wants the baby when she’s born.” That couldn’t be ethical. Scientist obtaining guardianship or parental rights on their research subjects was, if not illegal, ethically questionable. Bozie had seen documentaries. Sometimes these things didn’t end pretty.

“I–. I’m capable of taking care of her, they couldn’t take her away.” They both knew that it was more of wishful thinking than a fact what Phil had said. All it would take was a final report from the Child Protective Services to get the baby taken away. 

“But if they would do it, give her guardianship to Dr.Martin…” 

“Then I would go with her.” And there came the defeat again in Phil’s voice. “They wouldn’t even have to keep me committed, I would probably stay in his house voluntarily. If they’d only let me.”

“Yeah.” It was painful for Bozie to hear what Phil was saying. With that one single move, taking the baby, they would have it all. Whoever _they_ were, at this point. Keep the baby girl’s guardianship within Dr. Martin and their camp of social services and scientists, and Phil would follow. Give it time, and Adam would follow too, most likely. 

It was painful to listen, but at the same time, it was good to hear the truth in Phil’s words. If Phil and the baby would get separated right at birth, it could be extremely difficult to get her back later, but it might also be extremely difficult for Phil to get attached to the child. It had been difficult with Adam, while Phil had been his primary care taker. Now the situation was even more dire, and Bozie knew that Phil knew it. But Bozie also saw that Phil _wanted_ to be there to get attached. In Bozie’s nightmares Phil would just give the baby away, a one problem out of his life. 

In his nightmares, Bozie was also left by himself, without his family. 

“Why would they even want the baby? We’d done what they have wanted so far. I present no danger to myself or to my kids, and they fucking know it.” Phil’s frustration rose again. “What really is their problem? We would come for testing afterwards, we haven’t said that we wouldn’t. We are in the right country already, and we wouldn’t flee underground.”

On Bozie’s view, Phil was being willingly obtuse with his arguments. “But you were really vocally against being transferred here, they had to literally escort you. You have also expressed, loudly, that you won’t want any more children. Or maybe they just want to be extra sure about your health all the time, making decisions that you wouldn’t necessarily agree on.” 

Phil tried to decipher that. “So they want to keep a hold of my leash and get the kids’ guardianship, for what? For science? To pressure me to have more children?”

That was probably it, even though Bozie didn’t want to say it aloud. It was about securing their access to Phil and his kids and in that way, secure that huge research funding from the government that the scientists had applied. 

“You are unique, and there are always many takes for unique.”

***

It took a week for the other shoe to drop. Bozie had been waiting for _something_ to happen since Phil was committed, but it still took him a while to notice that this was it.

The facility felt especially gloomy today. Bozie parked to the empty visitors’ parking lot and went to check in. The summer heat had burned the flower arrangements by the door and the receptionist had dug up a fan that definitely hadn’t come with the décor. 

Phil was not there to greet him after the security check point, but Bozie was left to wander to Phil’s room by himself. He found him there, reading a stack of papers that looked like a shoddy photo copier work. 

Phil acknowledged that he’d noticed Bozie by switching to read aloud. “With his father away, A.K.’s home environment is constantly changing and without a stable parental relationship.”

 _What the-?_ A,K., Adam Kessel. That had to be the Social Services’ report on Adam. “Who gave you that report?”

“What does it matter, they just delivered it to me.”

“Is it all like that? And constantly changing home environment, what the fuck, he has me. I’ve been there since he was born. I’m a fucking stay-at-home dad! What else could they want?!”

Phil nodded, and continued, searching a paragraph from what he’d already read. “During the home visit A.K. appeared distrustful and fearful” Bozie groaned at that.

“Mr. Bozak appears to have a genuine and even loving relationship with A.K., but counting in that he shoots A.K. for YouTube videos, it’s possible that Mr. Bozak misuses A.K.’s celebrity status as a mean of livelihood.”

Bozie had to sit down. He’d knew that they could take and twist what they wanted, but this was just too much. “Are they recommending Adam to be moved?” He could barely say it aloud. 

“Yes.”

For a moment they just sat there, speechless. 

“Does it say when?” There was a feeling of pressure in his chest that Bozie couldn’t get rid of. Adam was at home with a nanny, they wouldn’t just show up, wouldn’t they? 

“No. It’s just a recommendation, Bozie. They’d would have to make an officiated decision first.” 

“Yeah, okay.” That didn’t change things much better, though. Bozie lapsed into silence again, but then continued. “I actually wonder how come they weren’t more interested in Adam before this. He is your genetic copy, after all.”

“Because I forbade you to take him to be tested?”

“You think that’s why…?”

“No. They already have me, so that’s not it. !f they want samples, it’s easier with an adult. It’s probably to get a better handle of me.”

“Yeah, but maybe they’ll start paying medical interest in him when he’ll come to reproductive age. Unless the world gets its answers in the next ten years and there will be nothing new to research.”

Phil kept quiet, but he closed his hand in fists to keep his calm. Bozie thought back what he’d said and wanted to puke. In ten years, Adam would be maybe thirteen, fourteen at most. The thought of anyone being interested in his son in a reproductive sense in that age made him want to kill someone.

“So this is it, then. They got their leverage.” Bozie felt furious, but the sense of powerlessness that had hung over them for months was again taking over.

Phil sniffed. His face was getting splotchy. “You have to understand. I can’t just do what they say. It isn’t just a matter of principle, I don’t fucking care who wins or loses. But I can’t. I can’t have more kids, I can’t live places like this. I fear that I would end it.”

 _Fucking shit._ “You mean that?”

Phil nodded, not looking at him. “I might. I don’t know. I feel like I’m crazy already.”

“You haven’t talked about this with anyone, right?”

Phil shrugged.

“Okay. Keep it that way. Act as normal as you can. Let them think that you have given up. Or acclaimed to your situation or how do they word it. And in the meanwhile, I’ll do... things. They can't make you. I'll make sure that they can't make you. Alright?”

Phil nodded. Bozie didn’t know if Phil trusted him to turn the situation better anymore, but he hadn’t asked Phil to trust him. This wasn’t about a freaking trust anymore, this was real.

Bozie drove away in a haze. He knew that this was it. If the authorities decided to keep Phil locked away and use his kids to pressure him to have more, in the name of fucking _welfare_ and _science,_ Bozie knew that Phil would eventually break. He had to get Phil out of the facility and his legal autonomy back before the baby would be born.

Bozie hated this. _Hated._ The baby could be taken away, and in the name of science, a repeat performance would probably be demanded. And again, with different this and that. With a different other father, maybe. And again and again. The thought of it made Bozie nauseous. 

You couldn’t just take people, the world wasn’t supposed to work that way anymore. What the hell had they done, to become such poor parents that Phil had been taken away and now Adam might be taken, too? They had done fucking nothing wrong, so how come it had come to this far? How long had they just sat and waited for things to happen to them? Now would be the least moment to do something, anything.

For a moment Bozie entertained himself with a thought that they could just disappear. _He would figure a way for Phil to walk out, and then they would just take Adam and go. They would change their names and appearances. They would be a small family living in peace in some remote location. Maybe people would think what a nice family they'd be, two dads and a boy and a girl, nothing really remarkable about them._

But that still wasn’t an answer. Maybe bailing out could be their last chance if all other ideas failed them. 

As he drove, Bozie went through in his mind who was on their side. As good as Mr. Stein was, he didn’t have the influence to turn this to their win, at least not in the time that they had.

Influence… How many rich or influential people did Bozie and Phil actually know? If they would get them, or the whole NHL to back them up, that could help. But still, as powerful as an organization NHL was, it was still only a sports organization. Even getting Lemieux, Gretsky, Jágr, Bettman and Crosby on their side might not be enough against what was essentially the Government. 

But… But. They’d seen it before. Media was influential, more influential than any separate person or organization. 

Bozie run his hand on his face, like he could physically help to wipe his vision clean. Before, media had been their enemy. This time, media would be their best friend. As long as the whole world were into know, they couldn’t just make Phil disappear. 

_Yes._ They would become a world sensation, and such a happy fucking family that the state, through the protective services, wouldn’t dare to take their kids away without a fear of it going political. Bozie knew they still might to try to swing the public opinion against Phil, and it might only take one fake child abuse report to make the general public want to murder them instead of loving them. Still, he’d take the risk. 

It wasn’t in Phil’s best interest to keep this under radar anymore, it was the government’s interest. Bozie had the power to change that. Bozie counted his resources again with his idea in mind. They should become famous so quickly that the officials wouldn’t have the time to try and shut them up, or feed the public their own rhetoric. And they would have to keep it as positive as they could, not blaming anyone. And when the whatever powers that were there would make decisions, they would see that Phil’s happy family fame would be better for the country’s image than going back to secrecy. 

If it would be up to Bozie, they would be the fucking happiest couple of the century. But they would also have to keep the story on their own hands and say it like it was. If the only way to get the government leave Phil alone was Phil saying in the cover of the Time that any other kid he would carry would be against his will, he would do it. Bozie would make sure of it.

***

After arriving home and relieving their sitter, Bozie made a call to Janine, the Pens PR woman. He wanted to hire a PR professional to work just for them, with no other commitments, so the person couldn’t come from the same company the Pens used, but Bozie could use a recommendation.

It didn’t take Janine long to figure out what and why Bozie was asking, but she swore to keep her silence as long as was needed. She got back to him with a name in fifty minutes. 

Bozie met the Matt the same night, a young and hungry professional with plenty of connections, and they signed an employment agreement the next morning. If this would go wrong, it would ruin Matt’s career, too, but he was willing to take the risk, and the check that came with it.

After Matt signed his contract and confidentiality agreement, he got the full briefing: The medical mystery of a two-parent male pregnancy, the sex of the child, and the scientific and legal web they had ended up tangled. 

Matt started his work immediately. Unlike Phil’s lawyer, Matt had no problems with working for both Bozie and Phil. For him, there was no conflict of interest but only “us” versus “them” on a larger scale. 

Gathered over their kitchen table, Bozie, Matt and Stein made a strategy while Adam was watching cartoons in the next room. The strategy was pretty simple, and came with old fashioned story rights negotiations, media availability plan, vetting the whole thing with Phil’s lawyer, and purchases of media monitoring service and a hub service for controlling all social media through one platform. 

For Bozie, it felt huge. It was, Matt said with his eyes almost gleaming with anticipation. “We are going to try to grab the attention of the whole world, and get the public opinion on our side. We’ll control the narrative, as they say.”

Bozie just did what Matt had written on his list: Warn and prepare their families for possible media contacts (not a small job because they had kept the baby’s gender and their legal troubles in secret from them), gather as much as possible pictures and videos of them as a family from the last year (with some meager results because Phil had become more camera shy than ever, and then just completely unavailable) and prepare his social media channels for the upcoming interest. (That he at least could do well.) 

It took them five days. Five days of phone calls, e-mails, FedExed documents, briefings and hastily gathered meetings, Bozie fearing each hour that today the Child Protection Services would come with a judge’s order and take Adam away. 

They briefed Phil only on matters that touched him right this moment, all other things would be just an extra burden for the man. It was crucial that no-one in the facility would note the growing number of meeting requests and then just extra phone calls that were for Phil. 

On the sixth day, the news appeared in the digital edition of one of the country’s largest magazines. Bozie couldn’t stop reading the headline article again and again.

__

**Phil Kessel is expecting again, and this time IT’S A GIRL!**

Hockey champion & single parent Phil Kessel is expecting again, and this time it’s with his partner. Phil and Tyler Bozak tell their unique story on having the world’s first two-parent male pregnancy child. 




__

The photo in the story was the shot that Bozie had taken during their first whole family visit to see Phil. The picture quality wasn’t good but the magazine had photoshopped the shit out of it, and now it looked like it was a studio shot intentionally made to look like a selfie. Bozie knew that the picture would also be on the cover of the printed magazine that would come out the next day.

The article itself was a happy one; How exited they were and what a surprise the pregnancy had been. What a huge thing it was that the baby was a girl. And yeah, Phil was residing at the moment in a government facility for health reasons, but Bozie and Adam really missed him and Phil was really eager to return home to them any day soon.

What took Bozie by surprise was the accompanying editorial. It didn’t straight out write about the personal tragedies and deep wrongdoings that were integrated in the system and allowed by the legislation. But it did recount the journalist’s experience with gathering background information on Phil’s case and trying to meet Phil personally.

Bozie turned to Matt. “Did you know about this? The editorial?”

“Nope. I saw the article, but you don’t have to give editorials for an approval.” 

When Bozie was still focused on their “point zero” article, Matt was already surveying the conversation in other sites and forums. During the last few days, Matt had stopped even pretending to go home at nights, but had simply set his camp to Phil’s and Bozie’s guest room. 

Bozie wanted to hoot and pump his fist in the air. They hadn’t even suggested that the story would have been anything but the feel-good story that what was sold in the cover of the magazine. Still, the paper had been doing their homework in quiet and actually done journalistic investigation on the issue. Bozie read how the journalist had been told that meeting Phil hadn’t been possible. Not possible? Why? Based on what? Just not possible, he’d been told. Eventually he’d interviewed Phil by phone, with Phil’s lawyer starting the call and then handing the phone to him after a few minutes.

Phil would have to check Matt opinion, but this might be even better than their originally planned super happy, no problems no blaming -approach. More dangerous, too. With any luck and some hard PR work, this could start a public conversation on the issue of Government’s power over pregnant bodies. And it would happen without Phil and Bozie coming out as anything but victims of circumstances, not whining or intentionally trying to fight against the system. Which they totally were, in real life. 

“You got a hold of Phil?” 

“No yet.” They were both a bit anxious over not getting through to Phil. 

This was the moment, Bozie thought. It only needed one wrong person in a position of power, who thought that it was more important to win in their planned way, instead of cutting a little slack for their subjects for image reasons. One wrong person, and this would end with Protective Services at their door, this time with police, and Phil disappearing to somewhere, some facility even more secure. 

The longer there would be no reaction from the authorities, the better. Bozie spend his day huddled with Adam on their sofa, one watching tv and the other following the public unraveling on his iPad and trying to get a call through to Phil in vain. 

***

It was the morning of the next day when Bozie finally got a hold of Phil. 

“Well?” At least they had let him receive the phone call, so that was good.

“I don’t think that they like me here very much at the moment.” 

Phil’s dry tone made Bozie laugh with relief. “Yeah? How’s it going there?”

“They canceled my routines for the day and said that they’ve asked my lawyer here for the day, so I guess there will be some unscheduled meetings.” Then Phil’s voice got more urgent. “Bozie, I don’t actually know what is happening, exactly. Care to enlighten me? Did the interview come out?”

“Yep.” That came out almost proudly. “And it was picked up by NBC and Fox. Oh, and BBC and Reuters, and lots of others. I made you famous, baby.”

The same evening Bozie almost hurdled his phone into his television screen when he saw Dr. Martin in a news interview. He’d only seen the man once, but that would have been enough even without the text on the screen, informing him that Dr. Martin was now the head of a new founded government research institute for special circumstance male pregnancies.

“The fucker!” Bozie started before he noticed that Adam was in the room with him and Matt. Then he watched silently as Dr. Martin told what an honor it was to be able to do research on this scientific discovery, and how lucky he was to be an American right now. 

“No, no, this is a good thing,” Matt tried to placate seething Bozie. “There was a reason we didn’t name anyone. When no-one feels personally threatened by the public opinion, the opportunistic ones will change their story to turn this for their own account.” 

“So it’s a good thing?” To Matt’s enthusiastic nodding, Bozie finally had to courage to ask, “So did we win? Did we do it?”

“Just at this moment, yes. Congrats, dude.” Then Matt couldn’t contain himself but let out a pretty unprofessional whooping. 

***

At the end, regarding the authorities’ actions in the media brouhaha, Phil’s escape to freedom felt almost anti-climactic. Phil and his lawyer were informed that Phil’s home environment was re-evaluated as safe and the next day he was free to go. The Child Services’ process for evaluating Adam’s situation was also halted. 

Of course Phil’s release wasn’t without strict orders for him to follow. Until the baby girl was born, he would still have to visit the university hospital for checkups weekly or even daily if needed. Then, after she was born, Phil, the kids, and Bozie too if they wanted him, would have to get voluntarily tested in every six months, for 48 hours at a time at most. 

To Bozie’s relief, in their negotiation they hadn’t raised the issue of having more kids. They must have known that it would have been moot at this point. Still Bozie knew that it would be brought up later for sure.

Bozie hoped that the officials’ solution for the sudden fame, dropping the most restrictive measures regarding Phil and his family, would be enough for the time being. Maybe a group of scientists or a politician would get greedy again in the future, but there was nothing much that he could do about it now. Bozie wondered if his family would be ever again be able to travel to Canada. With the United States being greedy with their research subjects, the kids might never get their passports, or possibly be even able to cross a state line.

And again, it all sounded too simple for Bozie. If they could take a man and commit him against his will for’ reasons that small, they could do it again after the world’s attention would be turned elsewhere. From now on, it would be part of Bozie’s job to make sure that the world’s attention wouldn’t vane out. 

He knew that they were watched. They willingly putting themselves into a spotlight was a house arrest in a way, because their whereabouts would always be known. But Phil had gotten out and no kid had been taken into custody. That was the most important thing.

***

Keeping the worlds’ attention seemed a lot like what he’d being doing for a couple of years now, Bozie thought as he set up his familiar video equipment. He would be getting Phil home the next day, and he definitely was not in a mood for shooting a video, but who cared if he was really up to it, really. 

It was just a video, Bozie reminded himself. It was for a show. They had the world as their audience, so he better give them what they wanted. He would just phone it in, the happy coming home -video. Make it on one take if possible. He pushed RECORD.

“Hi all! I know that it’s been a few days since my last video, but I have a good reason, honest! As you might know, I kinda have mentioned it before, my hubby Phil is pregnant again… Again! Crazy, I know!” Bozie didn’t have to fake his excitement, because it really felt like some crazy shit, even months later. 

“So I’m going to become a father for the second time.” Despite Bozie aiming to his normally energetic speed that he used in his videos, there went a little pause. Just thinking about becoming a father again made him fucking verklempt, and that was not the happy vibe he’d aimed for. 

“Anyway!” There was even a little wobble in his voice, fuck if he’d end up editing this anyway. “So, Phil’s had some complications previously and that’s why he’d been living in, like, a rehab facility kind of place where there were doctors and other staff for him twenty four seven. We’d been visiting, Adam and I, but it’s not the same.” Bozie wiped the corner of his eye. Damn sniffles. 

“But now he’s coming home!” And thank sweet Jesus for that. “We are of course very excited to have him home, hopefully for rest of his pregnancy. There still might come stuff, but now it’s looking good!” 

“So now that the news is out, I have a ton of stuff that I want to share with all of you. We have tons of gifts, and don’t worry, we’ll probably end up using all the boy stuff too, since we’ll be too busy to do laundry! And you won’t believe the clothes haul I have for you to see, and it’s all girl stuff! I don’t know anything about girly stuff so you’ll have to help me out!” 

Bozie quickly ended the video, promising all kinds of parenting blog treats and even finally giving a P.O.Box address for gifts. He ended up editing the video minimally. The most important thing was to get it out of there to give out their narrative about Phil being gone shorter a time that it had actually been, and because of medical reasons only. So if there had been a little too much of weepy stuff for Bozie’s likening, oh well. 

***

 _Things will go back to normal now._ Bozie tried the feel of the sentence when he parked the car for the last time in the visitor’s lot. The thought almost made him laugh in its absurdity. It wouldn’t be so easy, not even close.

Phil came out, carrying only one duffel bag with him. Bozie guessed that he’d left his clothes, books and other acquired stuff there. Phil was still wearing the unremarkable loose knits that Bozie had come to think as prison clothes. 

It was a clear daylight but still Bozie thought that he saw a flash go off. There was a nice group of photographers on the other side of the fence, but they were behaving. None of them yelled questions and there was no-one demanding an interview. Maybe the pictures that suggested a private meeting between them sold better, Bozie wouldn’t know. Still, it was a good thing that he’d decided not to take Adam with him to get Phil. They would have their reunion in private. Well, maybe Bozie would take it on video, for private family use.

They shared a somewhat chaste hug and no kiss. Bozie wanted to think that it was because of the photographers and not because of Phil’s belly getting in between them and ruining Phil’s mood, or something else. But it still felt so good, being able to touch Phil. It hadn’t been restricted in the facility, and many visitors must have gone all conjugal about it, but for the months that Phil had spent locked in, they hadn’t had sex or even touched each other, really. 

Bozie had to stop for a moment to really look at Phil. He was huge, the pregnancy belly accentuated by his otherwise slimmer figure. He looked exhausted.

“Stop it,” Phil muttered to him, knowing well what Bozie was looking at.

“You look nice. Like you are in need of a meal and a good night sleep, but you look good. Handsome.”

Phil scoffed at the last description and got into the car, steadying himself carefully and using the handle to hoist himself up. At no point had he looked down at himself after Bozie’s praise. Bozie doubted if he did at all. Phil was pretty good at avoiding the obvious when he wanted. 

“You okay? Hungry?”

“Is Adam home?” Bozie wondered how guilty Phil would feel if he wanted to elongate the moment between them before he’d meet his son again. Phil loved his son like nothing else but if he was as mentally drained as what he was physically, dealing with the hyped up toddler could be a bit much.

Bozie started the car and headed off from the parking lot. Surely no-one would follow them, they just weren’t interesting enough for that, right? “Yeah, he’s there waiting, but a few more minutes won’t kill him. We could get drive through from McDonalds of something.”

“I haven’t had fast food in ages.” 

“McDonalds is it, then.” 

***

Bozie did end up filming both Adam’s and Stella’s meeting with Phil. Separately, which was a good thing because Adam was old enough to actually listen when Bozie warned him to not physically try to climb up his dad, but Phil’s dog wasn’t into listening when she met her master. Bozie quickly run out of hands when he tried to keep Stella from smothering Phil, and shooting at the same time. While Adam’s film ended up both parents placating the little boy whose emotions went overboard and ended up with a cry, Stella’s video was just heartwarming and would surely end up on Bozie’s YouTube channel.

The evening was spend trying to keep up with Adam’s routines, including with his normal bedtime. “You do it,” Bozie pretend-argued with Phil about which one of them would put the boy to bed. 

Eventually Bozie joined them, if only to discreetly inform Phil that night diapers were back in the routine. Phil stopped when he saw the marred wall decal on Adam’s wall. Bozie had completely forgotten it.

"Anger management", Bozie explained.

They returned back to their living room sofa after their boy had fell to sleep. Bozie knew that the probability of Adam sleeping through the night was near nil. It was also a convenient reason for them two to take their returned chance at physical intimacy slowly.

“Remember that one offer that they made? That you could go home and they would have left you alone if you would give the baby away? They were never going to do that. There was too much at stake there. “

“I know.”

Bozie couldn’t take it but sprung up to walk around the room. “I’m just so angry, still. Those fuckers. And we didn’t even win, not really.”

“But we’re surviving, we’re coping. I’m here, am I? And you know, this.” Phil motioned towards his huge belly.

Bozie only settled after Phil took a hold of his leg and pulled him back beside him. 

Bozie pulled his legs up. “Can I grieve for the loss of your pregnancy time? That you were taken from us, when we could have had something really special?” 

It felt so petty to grieve after something so insignificant, when they could have lost their child children, several times, even. And they still could. “I know it’s stupid, but just thinking how good it could have been… After Adam, I would have loved to make it good, the expectancy.” 

But Bozie couldn’t fool himself. There would have been problems anyway, just the different kind. Being out of the facility and with Bozie and Adam helped, but Bozie knew better than thinking that everything would be okay from now on. It was just a phase, he reminded himself. No matter how much they would downplay it, Phil had a medical condition, being depressed during and after the pregnancy. 

“The visits that you agreed on from now on, is there any therapy? Like, talking to a psychologist?”

“No. And that’s a good thing because I wouldn’t go. What I don’t need is them to pronounce me crazy, it’s what they tried when I was committed.”

Okay, Phil obviously had a strong opinion on this already. “Maybe you should go. You could choose your own therapist.”

Phil kept silent. 

“Just try? Shouldn’t hurt, any.”

“There is a law”, Phil said, resigned. “According to which the patience confidentiality must be broken if a doctor suspects that his pregnant patient might harm himself or the child.”

“Well that’s–.” But then Bozie’s words halted. “You don’t… You don’t have those kind of thoughts now?” 

“I’m not going to do anything, Bozie.” 

“That’s… good to know. But then, if you feel like you’d have to sensor yourself, what’s the point of going.”

“Exactly.” 

For Phil, the conversation was over, but Bozie still had to continue. “But maybe after, when you aren’t pregnant anymore?”

“Maybe.” Bozie thought about their shaky parenthood situation and knew that Phil still might not do it. Even if he would personally gain from getting therapy, the thought of the mark in his medical records was scary. 

“And if you ever think that you might hurt yourself, you tell me, do you hear? _Tell me._ ” We would get you professional help if you’d really need it, but with unofficial routes if we must.” 

Bozie could still taste the anger inside of him. He remembered the fear from Phil’s previous pregnancy, his disassociation and Bozie’s fear that Phil would harm himself. How far they were from that, really? How many steps away they were from there, and how far the help was again, if it would come to that?

“If I’m worse than the last time, I’ll need to be put on psyche meds soon after I’ll give birth. I had a postpartum then and fuck if I’m going through it again without anything. But we also need to make me a fucking father of the year and the child services will be watching me like a hawk, so I don’t know.”

“We’ll figure it out.” They would fucking kill it.

***

Having Phil home was great, but also freaking weird. Just looking at him made Bozie want to touch the other man all the time, and not chastely. While his thoughts had been elsewhere while Phil had been away, now he visited the male pregnancy blogs and some other, smuttier sites regularly. It was for research, he reasoned. They were now regularly being discussed in those places, and even fantasized over, and he had to know what was said, okay? Bozie had totally unselfish reasons to visit the sites.

Phil lowered himself on a chair, slowly. He wasn’t too eager to sit on the couch anymore as it was hard for him to get up without help. “Ooh crap.”  
“Uh huh?” Bozie aimed to sound as non-committal as possible, as Phil’s moods were hard to figure out sometimes.

“I’m fucking achy and horny.”

Bozie could emphasize but couldn’t really relate, because the ache came from loosening of Phil’s joints, in his body’s preparation for the birth. Which was completely in vain, because Phil had chosen a Cesarean.

But about that other thing… “How horny? Want me to help you get your mind off some things?” It was in the middle of the day but Adam was at daycare. 

“Oh please do.” Phil rose up gingerly and continued to their bedroom without even checking if Bozie would follow, because of course he would.

Walking behind Phil, Bozie couldn’t see his belly, but he could imagine it easily, as the other man’s posture reminded him of it on his every step. Phil had to curve his back slightly backwards to keep his balance and the gait in his walk that came from his lowered center of gravity only accentuated his hips. And when Phil placed his hands to support his back, it really brought his ass out, which was _hell yes._ Someone else could have seen the other man’s state of pregnancy less appealing, but Bozie thought it was sexy as fuck. 

Bozie had to keep his hands on himself for a moment longer because Phil wanted to take of his clothes by himself, but he surely could look. This time Phil didn’t roll his eyes on him, because who wouldn’t like being watched with desire when they were about to have sex?

“How do we–?“

“From behind.”

Bozie had had some mutual blowjobs in mind, but this would do. Fuck, this was exactly what he wanted. Except–. “Are you sure it’s okay? It doesn’t, you know, start things?”

Now Phil rolled his eyes. “No, it won’t induce labor, there’s hormones that start that, not fucking.”

“Okay, yes.” Bozie wouldn’t argue with that.

After that there was no negotiating, or any talk, really. They didn’t talk during sex much, they never had. They had almost always maneuvered their way to the sex they truly enjoyed by touch and feeling only. Sometimes they even closed their eyes. It had nothing to do with being shy, but enhancing the experience they got from touching. At some point (After a few beers) they’d had assured their friends that they were very touchy-feely when they were alone, but probably none had realized that they had meant it literally.

After they were both sated, sweaty and still riding the endorphines and the illicit thrill of not having sex while their progeny was sleeping down the hall, Phil slapped Bozie’s thigh.

“Well that you can save in your special sex memories.”

“Uh huh.” When Bozie had previously assured that he wasn’t into pregnant dudes but just into Phil, he hadn’t been exactly truthful. And if this was the last time of Phil being pregnant, then this might have been the last time for Bozie to first hand enjoy it, too. 

“I mean, we’ll be using protection from now on.” 

“Oh.” Yeah, and that, too. “Then we’ll just use it. Or do other stuff, or do it the other way around only.” It had never before came to their mind to use protection. They were exclusive, and men having babies had had nothing to do with men having sex, at least before Phil’s newest it hadn’t. 

Bozie kissed Phil’s shoulder and settled for a quick shuteye. They could even take fucking out of the menu completely if Phil would be too paranoid to try it even with protection, Bozie didn’t really care. They being a couple mattered, that Phil was here mattered, much more than their sex positions. 

***

Bozie woke up from a deep sleep when a hand poked him. “Bozie wake up!” 

“What? It was Phil trying to rouse him, and he sounded panicked, almost. For a moment Bozie was groggy but he woke up fast when he noticed that it was in the middle of the night. “What?” 

“Bozie, I think we have to go to the hospital now.” _Bozie, I think I’m bleeding,_ Bozie almost heard, but shook the flashback from the night when it all started. There still should have been three weeks to the scheduled delivery, but Bozie refused to get worried over that. 

“Okay, I’ll wake Adam up and grab the bag.” Phil’s parents were supposed to be here for Adam during the delivery, but not it looked like it would be Mrs. Bloom again. “You okay to walk?”

“Yeah, sure, after this, argh!” Bozie totally didn’t slip away as soon as he could, nope. 

***

In the end, the baby hadn’t been delivered by Dr. Martin but the doctor on call, an older, fatherly gentleman who had been delivering babies from men as long as there had been men delivering babies. Any additional spectator had been banished from the operating theatre. The scientists could have the freaking placenta or whatever, but that had come only after. 

Bozie took himself to listen the doctor rattle his _all is well_ -speech in the recovery room since Phil seemed to be too focused on his new kid placed snuggly on his chest to actually hear what his doctor said. 

“And no more babies, do you hear?”

“Huh?” That sounded off compared to the speeches they’d heard before.

“Don’t be afraid, we managed to deliver your healthy baby without damaging your reproductive parts any, but for the health of your children. You have to take care of yourself, too, and that means no more pregnancies, do you hear? You been very blessed so far…”The doctor’s speech tapered off when he noticed the _cut it out!_ expressions the other staff were projecting to him, and not too subtly. The doctor had the grace to back out of the room before he let out the _WHAT?_ that Bozie had been expecting.

His talk would have been great to any other new parent, not too pushy, with just the right amount of fatherly care and wisdom. Too bad that no one of their regular science and politics inclined specialists had been there to explain their plan of more babies to the delivering doctor. But that had been the advice from a truly neutral doctor with only his patient’s health in mind, Bozie noted. _Good to know._

***

As a parent already, Bozie had responsibilities to take care of. It took until noon on the phone to take care of Adam’s nanny situation, and update their parents, families, lawyer, the Penguins organization, and basically the whole world on their pink bundle of joy. Only after that Bozie got to actually go and meet Phil and the baby.

Phil was holding the baby when Bozie came in, a tiny bundle with an alabaster skin and a few curls of dark hair. Bozie wanted to think that she looked a bit like him. She was so freaking cute.

Also, Phil had been alone with her and was holding her, with seemingly having no problems with getting to know his daughter. Bozie was thrilled. He felt himself becoming all grabby-hand for the baby, but it was so nice to see Phil hold her that he waited for a bit.

Bozie looked around their private hospital room for a distraction. And distracted he was, because the room was full of flowers, mostly pink. He focused on the one that seemed to scream taste and money.

“Where’s this from? It’s nice”. They’re already received so much flowers that they had asked the still arriving bouquets to be gifted to other rooms. Matt the PR guy had already arrived to the hospital and had taken to himself some personal assistant duties as he carefully stashed all the greeting cards. 

Still, this one large arrangement of pink and yellow tulips and narcissus had been delivered to their room. It looked like no-one had yet separated the card from the arrangement.

Bozie picked up the creamy white envelope and opened the luxuriously tasteful card. “It’s from… the President.”

“What?” 

“Uh huh.” Bozie looked the envelope again, trying to see if there was a White House watermark on it. “And I think that’s a real signature, too. We should frame this. Would look good in the baby’s room, you think?”

“Ha! Sure.”

But now it was Bozie’s turn already. “Let me hold her?”

Phil offered her to him, but he wasn’t in a hurry like he’d be relieved to get her to someone else. “Just watch the–.”

“–Head, I know.” Her cap had got crooked and Bozie saw the tufts of dark brown hair that peeked underneath. She had much darker hair than what Adam had. Bozie was startled to realize that the girl actually looked like him. Of course he had known that she would have half of his genes, but he hadn’t truly realized it until now. _Just wow._

“So what are we going to name her? Anything goes, except Eve, or Maria.” Bozie thought for a moment. “Or Stella.”

“Ha.” But Phil looked like he already had an idea. “I know I’ve said before that no relatives, Would Amanda be good? Or would that be too close to home?”

“No, Amanda would be great. And we could always shorten it.”

“She doesn’t look like Mandy.”

“Andie?” Bozie dug out his phone and fired up the camera, one-handedly.

Phil frowned but didn’t say anything. 

“It’s okay to announce her name on twitter before it’s in the birth certificate, you think? And I’ll have to ask Matt to set up a twitter account for her name so no-one can snatch it before us. Happened with _Baby Kessel_ and _Baby Girl Kessel_ , I think that one of them is a spam account and other one is a joke, like the baby tweeted her thoughts from the womb or something. Can you take her?

“Bozie…” Phil took the baby but it looked like he was on a verge of ordering Bozie to put the camera fuck away from his face, Bozie knew it.

“Lift her closer to your face? Smile?”

Phil looked at him sourly. “Yeah, not going to happen.”

“Bozie set the phone down and straightened up to look directly at Phil. “Phil, being media darlings got us to clear from this shit creek. We are going to continue if it helps to keep the kids with us, okay? So you better deal. You already promised to deal with it.”

Phil physically coiled back at Bozie’s words, but seemed to come around quickly. “Okay. Yeah, take the picture. Take several.”

“Okay. Bozie hesitantly smiled at them as he lifted the phone. “Smile!”

What it came to the media, they thankfully still were the hot shit, Matt had reported to Bozie only an hour ago. Bozie wouldn’t even mention to Phil how much money there had been on the table for the first family photos with the baby. But they didn’t need the money, so Bozie would much rather just publish the first pictures in Twitter and Instagram for the whole world to see. It was them taking control over the narrative, Matt had advised them.

The picture that Bozie chose went viral. Bozie had skipped the ones where Phil had looked at the camera with a more or less sincere smile plastered on his face. Instead it was just a close up of the baby who had just fallen asleep, with Phil not facing at the camera but fondly looking at her, smiling slightly. _Smiling genuinely,_ Bozie thought. 

***

Bozie had just put Andie to her nap on her napping basket (in the middle of the living room floor, guarded by Stella, where she could be easily seen and reached) when the front door buzzer rang.

Phil was sleeping, too, (in their bedroom. He slept better when the baby wasn’t in the same room) so Bozie shushed Stella and went to see who was at their door. Maybe it was one of the guys. Nick had already visited with Maisie in tow, and Olli had come to see them with his pregnant fiancée.

It was Dr. Martin. In his civil clothes, he looked almost normal. Not the monster Bozie had him be in his mind. But what the hell was he doing here? 

“What do you want?” Bozie could act civilized. 

“I’m sorry to bother you, but is he home?”

“Yes.”

Dr. Martin made a move, expecting Bozie to step aside and let him in like people usually did. Only that Bozie didn’t make a move, but instead crossed his arms and took a slightly wider stance in his posture. He might not be huge but he was still a former processional athlete and no man could push him aside if he didn’t want to be pushed.

The doctor took a step back instead and seemed to adjust his attitude to fit to the situation. The doctor wasn’t in charge here. “Could I talk to him? It’s important.”

“No, I don’t think so. You can leave him a message.”

Dr. Martin was obviously unhappy with Bozie’s offer. Maybe he’d thought that he’d have a chance to talk with Phil alone. The doctor stood there, not continuing. The impasse didn’t bother Bozie so much that he’d have changed his offer.

“Well, if you have nothing to say, then…”

“No, I have a message. Please say to him...” Bozie waited as the other man gathered his thoughts. “:..Please say to him that if he ever wants to leave his current family situation, or if he feels threatened or his kids being used, he can call me, always.”

 _That fucking holier-than-you asshole, how dared he_. Bozie wanted to punch the guy. It had to show on his face when the look on Dr. Martin’s face changed from righteous to alarmed. He took another step backwards. 

“Okay. I’ll say that to him. But that’s my spouse you are talking about, and my son and my daughter. So you stay the fuck away from us. You have no business to be on our door. Do not come again. Anything else?” 

Bozie’s body language must had made it clear that nothing else was welcomed, because Dr. Martin just shook his head. “I’ll just go, then.”

Bozie was already closing the door when he heard the doctor say, “And that’s for you, too. If you’ll ever find yourself in a situation you can’t get out of, call me.”

Bozie slammed the door shut the rest of the way. That fucking prick, how dared he to end this like him would be the answer. It was over! Everything was well now. This was about his family, and Bozie would make sure it would.

***

Phil poured cereal for Adam’s plastic bowl and sat down to watch Bozie feed a bottle to Andie. Bozie thought his video called _A good parent won’t feed cereal to their kids_ that he’d made maybe a year ago, but then didn’t say anything. Where had the package even come from?

“I have given this a lot of thought, and I think that I want to go back. What do you think?”

 _Okay, that had come out of the blue._ Phil was still a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and even when he was placed in IR, Pens themselves kept reminding Phil and Bozie of that. Sure, it was mostly their PR department which stayed interested, but it was the guys, too.

On Bozie’s mind, Phil could put Pens in a tricky situation. Phil still had a contract so it wasn’t like the team could just say no thanks without a buy-out if things wouldn’t go that well performance-vice. But what they could do was to keep him as a healthy scratch or send him to AHL, which would be a shitty PR move. 

Phil would have to perform well or at least adequately because the Pens would look utter shitheads no matter what corrective move they would be forced to do if he didn’t. But if Phil would just stay away from the ice, be the devoted father for the rest of his contract, then the team wouldn’t have to gamble at all. Almost no-one would criticize Phil for not returning, his salary wouldn’t go against the salary cap, and the Pens would still have the good karma of having a double-single parent associated with them. Phil going back would be a risk. Not going would be a win-for-all. Except maybe for Phil.

“I think you should do what you want to do.” It could go well, too. It hadn’t taken Phil that long to get in shape the first time. The Pens still seemed interested. “And I’ll support you ever which way you’ll decide.” Bozie was absolutely committed in taking care of both Adam and Andie while Phil would be playing.

Phil sighed, wistfully. “What's the probability of a guy getting to NHL shape after two pregnancies?”

“Well you did it once already.”

Bozie watched Adam unsteadily carry his half empty bowl to the sink, and then turn to his parents for assurance and praise.

“I think that we should get married now.”

“Yeah?”

“You know, just in case.”

“Yeah, just because of that.”

End.


End file.
